Leon Timbo | What Love’s All About

Leon Timbo | What Love’s All About by Peggy Oliver

In this wide world of accomplished singers who strongly represent the urban music game, there are still many voices waiting in the wings. Whether joining in worship with Jason Nelson or jamming with R&B sensation Tyrese, Leon Timbo has always exercised his artistic passion with inviting stories and a warm lush baritone. Thanks to Tyrese’s keen business sense as a label head for Voltron Records and keen musical sense as one of those much accomplished soul men, Timbo is finally being recognized on a bigger national platform. As an already well-respected worship leader in some of the biggest church settings, including The Potter’s House, Timbo broke into the industry writing for neo soul gospel artist Lisa McLendon and performing on Bobby Jones Gospel and BET. Yet there was so much more brewing in his musical belly via the 2005 release, Soul Sessions, an R&B, hip-hop and acoustic soul package deal recorded in his birthplace of Jacksonville, Florida.

What a tremendous difference over ten years makes with Timbo now signed to Riverphlo Entertainment (through distribution by E-One) for his first major release in What Love’s All About, unveiling many gifts with first rate production guided by Luther “Mano” Hanes (Ledisi, Andrae Crouch, CeCe Winans). To kick off What Love Is All About in high gear, “For Your Love” shows off a different shade of Timbo’s musicality in an all-out funk dance jam filled with emphatic brass hits, guitar hooks, spacey keyboards and his trademark songwriting about attaining the purest love possible. The first single, “You’re My Darling,” addressing the ultimate commitment in romance, maintains the funky fresh flow, this time with sweeping strings. The title track resurrects the southern soul of Stax and Malaco anchored by a heavy bass drum backbeat. The acoustic, hip-hop frosted, “What Took You So Long,” illustrates a heartwarming tale of someone who is locked into the love of his life would be. The sixties’esque epic pop ballad, “I Need to Know,” inquires about the honesty of long-term relationships.

Though no one can dispute his confidence as a singer/songwriter, Timbo’s variety format for What Love Is All About loses a bit of his warm creative edge. While “Reach for Your Destiny” follows that pounding motivational anthem route a la Phillip Phillips, the mid-tempo party get-away anthem, “The Weekend” transforms into a mundane, uneventful track on all counts. Thankfully, Timbo rebounds quickly with several spiritual teaching moments. Along with the unconditional love behind the sizzling soulful blues of “I Still Love You,” the attractive country ode, “Forever (A Father’s Song)” finds fathers watching their children grow while advising them to never quit in the hard times and “A Thousand Songs,” points to the God that can solve our daily problems.

After all those long paid dues of waiting to reach that national recorded spotlight, What Love’s All About establishes much of Timbo’s musical strengths. And the vocal warmth that Timbo projects adds the soulful frosting on top. Four and a quarter out of five stars.

Peggy Oliver
The Urban Music Scene