The urban pop songbook of the 90’s is getting the revival it really deserves right now, and it’s coming thanks to independent players like Ronnue, whose new cover of Janet Jackson’s “That’s the Way Love Goes” feels as contemporary as anything topping the charts this autumn does. Right from the moment we press play forward, it’s obvious that Ronnue has a longstanding relationship with this track. There’s no hesitation as he comes up to the first stanza, nor is there even a hint of uneasiness as he finds his way into the cathartic grooves that, like those on his last album Introduction 2 Retro-Funk, were conceived with the intention of drawing reactions from listeners on the spot.
There’s actually a surprising amount of kick in the vocal attack as we get into the second half of the song, but even so, the harmonies it renders alongside the instrumentation remain understated, as if to tell us that the lyrically-referenced love at hand is fleeting, even for Ronnue. He’s yearning in the chorus, begging for this feeling to stay right where it belongs in his heart, and we literally can sense as it slips away and he’s left alone with his own thoughts (and, to be accurate, a slew of reverberating verses reminding both us and him of just how real this moment is).
I really like the juxtaposition of the bass and the drums as opposed to a straight-fusion of the backend in this mix, which has been the standard practice for most of the indie R&B musicians I’ve been listening to on the west coast in the last decade or so. Ronnue is a very meticulous arranger and singer, and instead of trying to bite off more than he can chew with an overambitious symphony of textures in the background here, he’s going conservative and sticking with a script that’s brought him nothing but good luck so far.
The most experimental look we get out of “That’s the Way Love Goes” comes in the form of its music video, but I would say that Ronnue wears its simplistic construction rather well. He isn’t trying to be flashy or giving us anything even remotely close to what most critics would have assumed he’d assemble for this type of an endeavor; on the contrary, his performance in this visual piece is actually kind of homespun and humble. It’s enough for establishment types to label him alternative, and in my world, that’s not exactly a bad thing at all.
I’ve come to expect a lot out of Ronnue since witnessing his meteoric ascent to local fame in the Seattle underground just last year, and I must say he does not disappoint with what he produces in the new single “That’s the Way Love Goes” as well as its video, both of which are out and gaining some steam online this fall. He’s nowhere near finished showing us what he can do, but here, Ronnue reminds the world that he still knows how to keep it simple and have some old school R&B fun.
Jodi Marxbury