Berlin’s soulful songwriter Georg Levin is back with his second solo album, Everything Must Change. It follows the similar style of Levin’s first album, Can’t Hold Back. Levin is perhaps best known as half of Wahoo, a sensualized house duo with Dixon. They created perhaps one of Jazzanova’s greatest remixes with “That Night” feat. Vikter Duplaix. Levin has been a member of the Berlin electronic scene for almost a decade, putting out records on Sonar Kollektiv and collaborated with artists such as MAW, Basement Jaxx and Calibre. On Everything Must Change, his debut for BBE, Levin pulls together 11 tracks of glossy, soul-infused rock, laid back pop and ’80s aesthetics.

The opening song, “I Need To Understand,” has a dreamy and funky Willie Hutch/Norman Whitfield rhythm, but the vocals are cheesy blue-eyed soul, the type that Plantlife and Mayer Hawthorne execute with mixed success, and towards the end it breaks into spacey soul-infused rock. Next follows the intoxicating title track, reminiscing Wham’s “Last Christmas,” and it starts getting fun and interesting. It’s like Hall & Oates: slick R&B over a slow and thumping house beat paired with soulful ’80s synths. “Runaway” follows the same styling, in a more moody Giorgio Moroder wrapping. “The Better Life” featuring Clara Hill is an up-tempo azid jazz anthem, sounding like Tortured Soul and a throwback to Rod Temperton boogie tunes. From here the album starts getting a little inconsistent, even including a soft and watered out, semi reggae tune called “The Scent Of Hay.”

Overall, Everything Must Change sparkles with good vibes and slick production. It might sound tacky at first, but give it a chance and you’ll understand that the record is touched with a bit of tongue-in-cheek flair, and that it exudes much more soul than a lot of the American contemporaries.

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