In a way, “Be Your Woman” feels like attempting to hand-paint a galaxy. But instead of stars and cosmic dust, Johnny Fordyce is working with saxophones and neo-soul chords, weaving something intimate against the vast expanse of dreamy, sometimes psychedelic pop. It’s the kind of song where the universe feels smaller for a moment, as if your bedroom is the only world you need, and Fordyce is comfortably co-piloting the atmosphere from some distant corner of Philadelphia.
The song hums along with an easy groove, so warm and welcoming that it feels less like a track you listen to and more like something you accidentally slip into, like a favorite sweater. But don’t mistake comfort for passivity—the layers of emotion here are thick as velvet. There is desire, sure, but what really twists it around are Fordyce’s promises wrapped in simplicity. “Take you out, show you off, paint the town”—it’s romanticism boiled down to its rawest, least contrived form. You get the sense that the speaker, in all their yearning, isn’t playing games but writing new rules.
Then, out of nowhere, that saxophone solo. That sax! It cuts through the slow-burn groove like a neon sign flickering in a romantic noir film. Here, gender norms find themselves rewritten, perhaps even erased. Is Fordyce tapping into Bowie 2.0 vibes? Or maybe it’s the flamenco ghost of Sade wandering in from another dimension, offering advice. Either way, Fordyce is pushing for personal freedom while backing it up with dreamy, jazz-laced soul.
“Be Your Woman” feels like an invitation to love—aggressive, personal, feverish, and yes, goofy in its danceability. By the time it ends, you’re thinking about the galaxies you could hand-paint if only you asked someone to hand you the brush.
