Tag: Alternative RnB

  • TRACK REVIEW: Asher – Pollen

    TRACK REVIEW: Asher – Pollen

    Written by Julia Harumi Kudo

    “Pollen,” composed by Asher, Areli, and Juicingjuicy, is a rumination on a song in which they refuse a memory to be simply remembered. Thus, they go and breathe it all over again, even when it stings. The song turns with the slow, circular logic that endings and beginnings are trick mirrors than stages of the same cycle, and where longing for someone, like pollen, is both natural and difficult to resist. Realized on a skeletal chill-hop rhythm and clad with the flexibilities of Neo-Soul, the trio somberly revels inside the Petri dish of modern R&B, with Asher and Areli’s production leaning towards texture rather than structure. With organic patience, the guitar arrives almost unbeknownst, while the synths forage underneath with velvet layers perpetually glued to the mix. And yet, for all its fawning, there’s something vaguely obscured here. The vocals are often fractionally veiled; phrases fade into texture, and you notice yourself feeling the words first before even fully understanding them. It’s a little frustrating to be able to catch the fragments of the yearning spiel enough to know there’s an intention, but not enough to withhold it fully. But when the song chooses to reveal itself—“I need, I need you so”—it does so with a startling clarity that it almost feels sacramental as if that line alone is intentionally meant to survive the haze and the rest belongs to someone else. 

    Drawing from the title alone, “Pollen” alludes to a collapse—fallen, yes, but also feathered, dispersed, made airborne. The word blushes a little and hides inside itself: to fall in love again, to have already fallen apart, and to still be suspended somewhere in between. And just like pollen, the pining in the song acts like a natural phenomenon. Our body resists even as it needs, pure animal instinct. Areli gets back to this contradiction without resolving it: desire shaking hands with dependency, tenderness going up against doom. “I don’t trust the time when you’re not around / I’m fallin’ apart again.” It sounds simple and almost childlike, but such straightforwardness is what allows us to let our human sensibilities feel, and that’s the closest we can get to being nearly transformed. We’d be neither healed nor broken, but airborne.

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  • ALBUM REVIEW: zayALLCAPS – art Pop * pop Art

    ALBUM REVIEW: zayALLCAPS – art Pop * pop Art

    Written by Faye Allego

    If the very peak days of MYX were still around, zayALLCAPS would take that television channel by storm with his musical endeavors, but in this era of DIY, the listening experience of ‘art Pop * pop Art’ is more than enough. In his third studio album, zayALLCAPS seems fun but careful; It’s camp, it’s arbitrary, and it isn’t indulging in the Y2K music nostalgia for the solemn sake of doing so. Zay couldn’t be more clearer: It’s art, and it’s pop. Simple as that. 

    On shuffle, ‘art Pop * pop Art’ is as if your ears are tuning in on different circles of people whom you’ll find at a gig with an hour-long DJ set: “MTV’s Pimp My Ride” is playing when guys in loose jersey shirts are rolling their bodies near the turntable, presumably having the time of their lives. In tracks like “PROCESS,” multiple rhythmic melodies come in like a triple threat – the threat being that Zay stays true to his Instagram username, “Swagalog101”. Dare I say, he has the full potential to bring back the term “Jeproks/Jeprox” through his amalgamation of Jodeci influences in his more sensual sounds. 

    zayALLCAPS pays no cap on that production. Who knew aggressive autotune that sounds like a talk box blended with smooth harmonies into a foamy mic could sound so orgasmic? The thing is, autotune discourse is so overtly tired, but tracks like SATURN (ft. Anto The Wayward) bring plus points to those who simply don’t care about the “correct” usage of autotune. Zay oscillates between tracks through the velvety theatrics of autotune without sounding too hazy or, for lack of a better word, monotone. It’s not a watermark that defines his artistry; however, through the funky textures of “rWm”, this track proves that autotune can be an extension of his persona, bringing prismatic bursts into the listener’s ears without drowning in reverb or harmonies that sound like a repeated Coca-Cola burp. 

    The only downside is that lyrically, Zay keeps it rather dull; “Friendz U Can Kiss” (ft. Frizzy) tries to juxtapose well with the sharp engineering of the album’s seductive yet upbeat production, but the rhythms from the rhymes that match the melody seem to be its only saving grace. 

    In tracks like “Love In U,” lyrics like “Minimizing my synonyms I incentivize a new beginning/Who said I couldn’t? Regrouped I’m super in it/I run the ship like a troop and I’m the new lieutenant/ Had to switch it up staged a coup that’s how I reinvented” bring that campiness element to the song and the album because visually, it seems impossible to mentally illustrate these lyrics in a more retrospective sense, since the synths already provide the fun, lighthearted atmosphere. Nevertheless, the lexis and rhythm bring out the colors within its blues. 

    At its best, ‘art Pop * pop Art’ is a kaleidoscope and a rotating disco ball where sparkly theatrics cast a bright reflection and bursts zayALLCAPS’ sheer personality. The recycling of nostalgia doesn’t exist in any part of his art and succeeds at making art very pop. 

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