Bay Area R&B and Soul maestro Martin Luther McCoy has graced fans with his long awaited return to a full-length studio recording, ‘Welcome Back Love.’ Goldmine takes a deep dive into this double album full of soul, funk and more
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By TONE Scott
Over 35 years ago, San Francisco native Martin Luther McCoy began to intently pursue a calling for a life and career in music. The awareness of his ability to compose songs, play guitar, produce music and wield an extraordinary vocal capability was evident to the artist and those around him from an early age. Nevertheless, with an equally level head regarding his education and future, McCoy was led to Atlanta, Georgia, where he would attend the prestigious Moorhouse College, focusing on entertainment law and marketing, graduating in 1992. Just over half a decade later, through persistence and perseverance, in 1999 the artist would self-release his debut album, The Calling, a cutting-edge, heavily Neo-classic Soul record via his own production company, Beyond Entertainment, which exemplified the artist’s fixation on classic soul, ’80s-era funk, and ’90s contemporary R&B.
Off the fuel of that debut, just about a half decade later, McCoy would release a sophomore effort that he would issue from his own newly formed record label under the umbrella of L.A.-based record label Avatar, whose roster has included everyone from Lionel Richie to hip hop icons, The Pharcyde, Kurupt, Goodfellaz, Mos Def, Planet Asia and more. Rebel Soul Music (2004) exemplified a great streak of musical maturity in just six years from his studio debut. Though his debut was impressive, his sophomore full-length was filled with a plethora of deep dives into his musical craw, resulting in an album reverberating with songs that represented that of a critical musical mind, one that cared nothing about conforming to the masses, but only what made sense to the artist from the standpoint of his deepest musical ideologies. Two years later, the artist would release his first live album effort, Live at Arlene’s Grocery (2006), a heavily soulful psychedelic rock-based performance which featured Nikki Glaspie (Beyoncé, Snarky Puppy, The Nth Power) on drums, and included older as well as new selections to boot.
Slightly over a half decade from this, McCoy would muster up a new batch of material that would manifest into two back-to-back albums (his third and fourth full-length studio recordings; albums that once again absolutely broadcast tremendous growth as an artist, keeping to his endemic soul style but simultaneously infusing heavy pop and slight rock sensibilities seamlessly into his core musical signature. The production quality exemplified over the entirety of both Extra Terrestrial Brother (2011) and Love Is a Hero (2012) was two recordings to be modeled, and landed McCoy with his most complex and introspectively creative works as a recording artist since his debut. We are not privy to the intimate details here; however, both albums should have at least seen Grammy Award nominations in 2012 and 2013, respectively; and yes, we are extremely earnest about that statement.
Many years would pass without much from the artist with regard to his own musical endeavors; nonetheless, he would spend time lending his talents to other artists in one form or another over an uncountable number of feature performances. Nevertheless, in 2024, McCoy would launch a digital-only 4-song EP album that would not only share the title of his forthcoming full-length, but act as a precursor to the artist issuing what we believe to be his biggest album to date. On July 17, 2026, Martin Luther McCoy released what Goldmine considers the artist’s magnum opus, Welcome Back Love; a full-length project that collectively exemplifies the McCoy’s total musical journey over the past quarter century. Goldmine was made privy to an early copy of the record, and immediately fell in love with its sonic span across previous decades of musical styles and non-conformity to current-day trends. Needless to say we were heavily impressed, and thus we invite you, the reader, into our honest and integral overview of the album.
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MARTIN LUTHER McCOY | Welcome Back Love
2026, Rebel Soul Records
Over the tenure of the artist’s music career, he has not only earned the respect from many of his well-known musical peers (many legends who originate from the Bay Area of San Francisco), but has also has performed along side and collaborated with everyone from The Roots, Lady Bug Mecca (Diggable Planets), DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Spinderella (Salt-N-Pepa) and superstar DJ Miguel Migs, to the iconic Dana Fuchs (Across the Universe motion picture soundtrack), Gregory Porter and the SF Jazz Collective. Having gone by the moniker Martin Luther for the majority of his past musical escapades, he returned in the Summer of 2026 with his fourth full-length album, this time utilizing his full name once again — Martin Luther McCoy. And while his name may have been modified, one thing has remained the same: the artist’s undeniable talent.
It has been almost 15 years since the artist’s last full-length album release, during which time he did not remain stagnant whatsoever, playing alongside his aforementioned peers and many others over a plethora of recordings too numerous to list. Though his endemic sound is laid over a foundation of soul and funk music, McCoy has proven time and time again that rock and other genres hold a solid place in the entirety of the artist’s overall soundscape. Nevertheless, when Goldmine took hold of McCoy’s latest album project, Welcome Back Love, we were very pleased to experience the very broad soul-sonic identity of this album. The album contains all new tracks with the exception of four, which stem from his 2024 EP album of the same name. Essentially, the album portrays itself as a collective nod toward ’80s, ’90s, and new millennium-infused soul, funk, gospel and contemporary R&B music with slight but noticeable intermittent inflections of pop, hip hop and Afrobeat rhythms.
Although we would have loved to go track-by-track through the halls of this album, how selfish would it have been for us not to leave many of these songs on the table for you to explore for yourselves? That being said, Goldmine has chosen five selections out of the 15 songs strewn over the course of this album to highlight in ways that, when combined, will give you an overall sonic view of what you can expect when you take your own deep dive into Welcome Back Love for yourselves. Disclaimer: it was extremely difficult to choose the selections we did, as there is literally not one mediocre track over the entirety of the record; nevertheless, we did our best to cherry-pick the songs that we felt collectively represented the total spectrum of the album’s sonic signature.
“Reimagine the World” — As we’d mentioned previously, how the sonic character of the album’s sound signature spans decades of style types, this selection, the album’s opener, immediately and recognizably resonates with ’80s vibrations. From the percussion’s time signature to the endemic mid-to-late-’80s-sounding synthesizer accompaniment, McCoy adds to this with vocal melody and arrangements that fit inside of that like the final piece of a picture-perfect puzzle. It is an uplifting piece that brightens your initial thoughts about the record to the point that it makes you expect the same or better from what’s to come. This was the absolute perfect choice to lead off the album’s song sequence.
“Welcome Back Love” ft. Stic of Dead Prez — The title track immediately dictates one of the best examples of modern R&B and funk found over the album (the bass riffs alone represent this with a sickness). Not that labels are everything, but for the sake of description, this will easily reverberate the listener back to the mid/late 1990’s R&B scene. What helps to tag this song with that assimilation is the fantastic feature performance by rapper/hip hop artist Sticman (Stic) of the infamous hip hop act, Dead Prez. His lyrical content matches the song’s contextual message, where McCoy professes to rejuvenate the love and the power as a people that the ethnic community deserves to rediscover within itself, and just like McCoy’s beautiful vocal delivery, Sticman’s performance is just as incendiary as ever.
“I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” — While finding a reimagined cover tune on a modern album is no surprise, the choice to cover this 1983 Elton John classic admittedly did throw us for a loop at first. The artist doesn’t stray too far away from the core vocal arrangement of the original; however, he has produced his version with a totally and absolutely unique feel and sonic character. The first thing to notice is the cadence and tempo of the song; slower, more soulful and definitely a more melancholy approach. This is not only found in his vocal performance, but it was the choice of how he lushly orchestrated this version that, in our opinion, preferably outdoes the original. We might get some pushback about that comment, but, oh well … we’ve said what we’ve said.
“Peace of Mind” — As one of the four selections included on the album that were originally found on his EP of the same name two years previous, this one makes a huge impact up against everything else on the record. With a blatant modern Afrobeat rhythmic nature from start to finish, “Piece of Mind” narrates the chase for internal peace as we struggle to achieve our dreams and deal with the everyday pressures of our social lives, all while acknowledging your self-worth. The song not only exemplifies one of the most well-written compositions on the album, but is also the subject of a 2025 Gospel Choice Music Award win in the Afrobeat category. Fantastic to say the least.
“Widowmaker” — Nearing the album’s close is an extremely unique piece that is actually the backend of a combined effort with “Hit Parade” (the song just before it). Think how Stevie Wonder combined “Superwoman” and “Where Were You When I Needed You”; that’s the similar dynamic here. “Widowmaker” begins as a slightly psychedelic-tinged soul-folk production yet quickly segues into a Prince-esque mid-tempo spacey funk piece, which simply turns into a freeform-styled jam that leads out the remainder of the song. It is a brilliant production that lands as one of if not the most, creative selections over this extremely impressive album.
Overall, was it difficult to assess whether or not this was Martin Luther McCoy’s most prolific album ever? Of course it was, and we had to closely consider all of his brilliant work before this. Nonetheless, after careful consideration, the level of musical proficiency (regarding the songwriting, composition and production quality) shown over each and every selection here made it evident that the artist is performing and creating at his musical zenith, making this his most incendiary album out of the entirety of his short but extremely respectable discography. The album is available on a double vinyl LP (tested) as well as streaming and digital download (just in case you are a sucker for invisible music), though we are not sure about compact disc availability as of yet. All in all, there is not only ‘not one’ bad thing that can be attributed to this record, but moreover, there is a massive chance that Welcome Back Love might land as Goldmine’s Best Soul and R&B album of 2026 … we’ll come to that conclusion as the year comes closer to the next. —GM
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Contact TONE Scott at [email protected]. Please put The TONE of Soul (Martin Luther McCoy) in the subject line.
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Find a selection of Soul and R&B albums and collectibles in the official Goldmine store: (Click below)
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TONE Scott is a career-long American music industry professional. As a Grammy Award nominated, platinum selling songwriter/ composer/ producer/ vocal arranger, he has worked with some of the world’s most renowned recording artists. As a published music journalist, he has been a feature writer for many internationally accredited music publications. Currently on staff at Goldmine magazine, he is Senior Contributing Editor with four reoccurring online columns — The TONE of Soul, Adventures of a Music Collector, Eclectic Discoveries and Jazzology — as well as a prominent feature-article writer for the magazine’s print edition, including the reoccurring article series — Modern Music Must-Haves. He is an acknowledged multi-genre music historian, having contributed liner notes for many album releases, as well as an expert record collector with over three decades of dedicated music collecting experience. As a content creator he hosts his own YouTube channel – TONE Scott – were he produces vlogs revolving around his music industry career and his life as a music collector. He is also the host of Record Store Spotlight; an online show that highlights independent record stores everywhere. Follow TONE Scott on all social media, including his YouTube channel by visiting his Linktree page, HERE.
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