Doctrine Of Love

Jalen Ngonda — 2026

“Ngonda’s soaring falsetto remains the star, but the grooves underneath have never felt more alive.”

Jalen Ngonda has one of those old-school soul voices that always makes you double check the back of the jacket to ensure it’s a 2026 release. He really does have a voice that could easily sit next to some of the Motown greats without thinking about it twice. He grew up near Washington DC, but really worked out his sound at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, and got his first real reps playing drums in church. It’s almost a storyboard of his musical progression and Doctrine Of Love, his second record for Daptone, is the sound of him relaxing a little bit more and expanding out his sound. Producers Vince Chiarito and Michael Buckley return, and together they push past the orchestral sweep of Ngonda’s debut toward something funkier, a bit rawer and plenty of horns flaring up where you want them and gospel runs lifting the background vocals.

What I like most is that Jalen never treats this music like a full return to history. He pulls from multiple places like funk, doo wop, folk rock, and the loose rock and roll of 1950s New Orleans, but he writes like a guy living in 2026. The title track grew out of a James Brown listening binge, and you can feel that restless momentum. The entire album is built on love as the ultimate measure of compassion and each groove here reflects that notion. Ngonda’s signature soaring falsetto will have you shaking your head at times as he effortlessly lands notes that seem impossible. The peaks of this album are incredibly high and will have you quickly hitting repeat.

“Hang It On The Shelf” is near the end of the record but really hooked me with its uptempo cut that radiates warmth, as Ngonda sings “But if you need some good old lovin’; I’ll hang it all on the shelf; ‘Cause I love you (I love you); And I need you, baby (to myself), ooh.” The title track has the most classic swagger of the 10 tracks, riding that James Brown drive, and it works as a love song and a small piece of philosophy. “I Can’t Ever Leave You” has the fantastic desperation to it when Jalen exclaims “No, I can’t let you go” along with this isolated funky guitar riff that gives the track an extra edge. “Burning Temptation” is another vintage vibing track with its background singers stepping up and singling the first parts of this chorus and Jalen highlighting the lines coming in right after like “Burning temptation (what can you do?); It’s a sad situation (oh, yes, it is now).”

Leon Bridges is a solid modern comparison here, along with Curtis Harding getting at a similar blend of vintage soul and present day edge. Michael Kiwanuka also excels at these slower-burning songs. Of course Jalen has tones of Sam Cooke hanging over all of it, along with “The Screaming Eagle of Soul,” Charles Bradley and the previously mentioned legend James Brown.

Records like this make a quiet case that soul music still thrives but you need to know where to look. Jalen Ngonda makes another solid statement with Doctrine Of Love and sounds like he intends to stick around.