satchy is the performing name of one Satchel Brown, a 21-year-old guitar player/vocalist/songwriter from Pasadena. Despite his young age, he’s already been putting out music for a couple of years now, including an EP called The Muse which came out in July of last year. Now he’s back with a new album, Brown Lotus.

If I were to try to classify the music of satchy, I’d go with garage/soul. The music is definitely coming from a retro-soul home base, but it’s being played and recorded with the looseness of a garage rock band. This leads to the initial dilemma of the album – satchy’s voice. It’s not bad, but it’s not precise either. It’s easier to look the other way if you’re listening to some slacker indie rock, because you have precedent for it, but when it comes to playing soul music, one’s ear is usually expecting the vocals to be second to none (and yes, there is absolutely a racist double standard at play here). Honestly, there’s an overall charm to satchy’s music to the point that I’m cool with the rough-around-the-edges recording style, but satchy’s pitchy-ness on the mic is a little tough to look past. This becomes all the more apparent when ASIATICA hops on the mic for “So Nice,” who has an incredibly strong and soulful voice that pushes the music over the top. That said, I don’t even need satchy to have a strong voice on par with ASIATICA, I just need it to have a good enough tone and pitch that it’s not distracting from all of the good work that’s going into this album. satchy has a great feel on the guitar, and he’s able to bring in a lot of jazz, blues, soul, and funk influences while he’s laying down some great licks to lead the listener through the album. He even brings in some hip hop on “Dream Girl,” which features Nate Dae, which helps bridge that direct connection between old school soul and hip hop. satchy’s also assembled an excellent band to play on the album, with Ben Lindenburg on sax, Sean Tarpey on guitar, Niko Embry on drums, and Andre Swadley on bass (along with additional production work). They have really good chemistry together, and they’re able to get some really nice grooves cooking. Going into the album, satchy found himself in love for the first time in a while, which means there is a joy and lightness to this album that wasn’t necessarily present on his previous releases. Overall, there is a real sweet and easy-going feel to the album that just leaves you with a nice feeling as you work your way through the tracks. It really captures that optimism of young, new love, and satchy does a great job of just putting himself out there and letting himself be vulnerable.

Brown Lotus isn’t perfect, and satchy’s vocals are going to be make-or-break for a lot of listeners, but there is still a lot to like here, and even more potential going forward. I hope he continues to push himself, because I feel like there is an excellent album within him somewhere down the line.