“This record is the next chapter in the journey through a golden era of artistry,” says the soul man about stepping deeper into his love for sounds of the ’60s and ’70s. Listening to Jalen Ngonda is like stepping back in time. With his powerful falsetto, warm analog instrumentals, and stacked vocal harmonies, Ngonda’s music is a perfect return to the infectiously grooving Stax and Motown world of ’60s soul. Following 2023’s acclaimed debut, Come Around and Love Me, which was released by US soul revivalists Daptone Records, the American singer and multi-instrumentalist now steps deeper into that stirring sound with his second album, Doctrine of Love. “I listen to soul from the ’60s and ’70s all the time, since it’s the music I love the most,” Ngonda tells Apple Music. “This record is a continuation of that sound—the next chapter in the journey through a golden era of artistry.” The result is 10 lusciously orchestrated tracks, produced by Daptone stalwarts Vince Chiarito and Mike Buckley, that glide through the strings-laden melodrama of “Anyone in Love” to the ’70s Marvin Gaye feel of “Hang It on the Shelf,” the Diana Ross-style balladry of “Taken Out of the Picture,” and the funk-laced guitar strumming of “Mr. Train Conductor”, each anchored in Ngonda’s soaring, inimitable vocals. “We must have written over 25 songs for this album, and what you’re hearing is simply the best selection,” he says. “It’s an album I’m proud to be finally putting out in the world.” Read on for Ngonda’s in-depth thoughts on the album, track by track. “Anyone in Love” “Some songs simply come out of nowhere, and this was one of them. I was sitting in the room with Vince Chiarito and Mike Buckley while playing around with chord changes, and suddenly Mike came up with these chords, Vince put on a backing track, and I wrote the lyrics straightaway. I’m always listening to a bunch of stuff that’s about love and heartbreak, so when I write, it usually follows the same classic soul feel.” “Doctrine of Love” “With this title track to the album, Mike came in with most of the chords already fleshed out, and as he began to play them, he did this thumping, swinging feel on the piano and the instrumental demo and lyrics came on very smoothly from there. The vocal stacks on this song are a typical expression of the way I sing and write, where each vocal is an integral part of the melody.” “Mr. Train Conductor” “Since Mike and Vince are based in New York and I’ve been living in London for the past eight years, we spend a lot of time sending instrumentals and songs back and forth to each other. They both flagged this one as a cool instrumental to write on but I couldn’t think of anything to add lyrically. With the deadline looming for the lyrics, I went to a cafe one morning for breakfast and didn’t leave until the right words and story had come out. Thankfully they did!” “Burning Temptation” “‘Burning Temptation’ went through two versions where the lyrics were entirely different. Mike initially came in with the chord progressions and Vince and myself structured it into the track and then I came up with the first draft of the song, which was called ‘What Can You Do.’ It didn’t feel quite right, so I went away and did another version, and in the end, we pulled together a mix of the two with the ‘burning temptation’ chant anchoring the track as its refrain. It’s a good example of our collaborative process.” “Love Is Gone” “This is the oldest song on the album. I wrote it at home just before COVID in 2020, a while before I even met anyone at Daptone Records. It’s one of hundreds of unreleased songs I have that might not see the light of day, but during the process of writing this second album, I was going down memory lane and listening to old tunes and I realized this one had legs to keep on developing. I’ve always liked it, and I’m glad it finally made it onto an album.” “I Can’t Ever Leave You” “Often when I’m writing new songs from scratch, there’s a lot of energy required to come up with the chords and melody on the same day, which means I need to go away afterwards and take some time to think of lyrics on my own. It’s rare to be able to do it all in one go. I wrote this track in summer 2024 with two friends, Adam and Sam, and the lyrics only came to me a couple of months later while I was walking to the pub and they suddenly sprung into my head. Thankfully, once I got home I managed to jot them down.” “Hannah, What’s the Matter?” “Vince wanted to make a faster song, something with a rock-driven beat to dance to, and this was the backing track he initially came up with. I recorded the beat on the drums along with the fills and then we started to figure out the chords together. I thought we should add some stabs and crashes to create drama, and once I had the line ‘We got a good thing going’ in my head, it all flowed from there. I wanted to use a random name for the chorus and Hannah felt like the best one at the time.” “Good Good Love” “This is the second oldest song on the record, which I wrote in 2023 while I was doing a residency in Hong Kong for three months. I used to perform at a members’ club there every night, and one Sunday, on my day off, I was playing at the piano in the bar of the hotel I was staying at and this song came out in 20 minutes. I was listening to a lot of Beach Boys and Carole King and it became a tune in that vein.” “Hang It on the Shelf” “The demo for ‘Hang It on the Shelf” had quite a different feel from the finished version. I initially wrote it in winter 2025 with Andrew Kingslow, who plays organ and some keys on the album, and the producer Owen Cutts, who came up with a looped beat sample that we wrote the melody and lyrics over. The demo had a Beatles sound to it but when it came to recording with the Daptone band, this Marvin Gaye rhythm came up, and it just sounded great, so we stuck with that.” “Taken Out of the Picture” “When it came time to figure out the sequencing for the album, we listened to so many different orders of the songs but it always sounded best having this one as the final number. When I wrote it, these chords just came to me and the lyrics equally poured out that same night—it’s a beautiful, tender note to end the record on.”