Jalen Ngonda returns to announce his sophomore album, ‘Doctrine of Love’, arriving June 5th via Daptone Records. Offering the first glimpse into this eagerly awaited full-length, Jalen shares the album’s title track, “Doctrine of Love”, out now.
With “Doctrine of Love”, Jalen steps confidently into his role as both disciple and pioneer, the title track setting the emotional tone and musical blueprint for the project. Built around a finger-snapping rhythm, soaring call-and-response backing vocals, and a gospel-charged crescendo, the song feels like an instant dancefloor classic.
Jalen explains: “I wrote that track when I was trying to do anything to get out of the studio. I was listening to a lot of James Brown at the time and that was an inspiration. ‘Doctrine’ to me was a word no-one ever uses. I took it to be like a certificate, the ‘Certificate of Love’ – look, I think maybe I meant ‘doctorate’, but we wrote it and recorded it and now it’s a whole thing. I just write the song. The listener can interpret it however they want”.
‘Doctrine of Love’ marks a confident second chapter, building on the feverish success of his critically acclaimed debut, ‘Come Around and Love Me’, which earned widespread praise from key media. The new album took shape across two writing sessions between Brooklyn and Riverside, CA, with producers Vince Chiarito and Michael Buckley returning to further explore the contemporary soul foundation they established on his debut.
Steeped in history but never confined by it, ‘Doctrine of Love’ finds Ngonda absorbing decades of influence and transforming them into something distinctly his own. Every drum break, string swell, and falsetto run feels lovingly crafted yet vibrantly alive. Drawing as much from rock and folk as from classic soul, he proves himself a true renaissance soul man.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that every day of my life I wish I would wake up in 1964 in Detroit recording with the Funk Brothers. But that’s not my life. So what I can do is express my thoughts and my fascination with that sound and period and just be an artist. The doctrine of love holds that every thought and action should be guided first by compassion for others, because love is the highest measure of human worth”.
A devoted vinyl digger whose grandmother gifted him a stack of Stax and Motown 45s as a teenager, Ngonda remains deeply rooted in the sound and spirit of classic soul. “I listen almost exclusively to music from the ’60s — the ’50s, the ’40s — pretty much nothing past about 1972,” he says. On stage, dressed in sharp 1950s tailoring and moving with effortless poise, he channels the charisma of a golden-era leading man — a Marvin Gaye for the Discogs generation.
Ngonda will take ‘Doctrine of Love’ on the road throughout 2026, with an extensive run of headline dates and major festival appearances across Australia, the UK, and Europe.
‘Doctrine of Love’ Tracklisting
1. Anyone In Love
2. Doctrine Of Love
3. Mr. Train Conductor
4. Burning Temptation
5. Love Is Gone
6. I Can’t Ever Leave You
7. Hannah, What’s the Matter?
8. Good Good Love
9. Hang It On The Shelf
10. Taken Out Of The Picture
