First, to state the obvious: Leon Bridges is a damn charismatic and stylistically compelling singer, and his preternatural grasp of early ‘60s soul, refracted through the modern lens of say, John Legend, is catchy, seductive and straight-up inspiring. That said, despite the breathless media hypefest surrounding his major-label debut, he’s no Sam Cooke—nor, at 25, should he be expected to live up to the comparison. If Coming Home suffers from anything, then it’s the rigid attention to duplicating, often in exact detail, the sound of an RCA recording studio and backing band circa 1963—a task nobly undertaken by White Denim’s Austin Jenkins and Josh Block, but almost at the expense of overshadowing the substance of Bridges’ exquisitely written songs. Lucky for us, the yearning sentiment of “Brown Skin Girl,” the summery roadhouse jam “Flowers,” the bottleneck soul-blues swing of “Twistin’ And Groovin’” and the righteous ballad “Lisa Sawyer” are all too powerful not to stand on their own, while Bridges himself, clearly destined for great things, sings like he was born for the spotlight.