I’ve been behind for months now. Chronically. Every time I start to get a leg up on my deficit, I’m knocked back down. So I’ve been hesitant to take chances on new-to-me artists over the last several months.
At the same time, this whole thing started because I needed to explore and find more music because my favorites were growing stale. So I’ve added a few here and there.
Few of those have felt as fresh and worthwhile as Ravyn Lenae.1
This Chicago-born Alt R&B artist is only 25 years old,2 as of this past January. She got her start recoding and releasing music as a sophomore in high school in 2015. She did all of this largely as an independent act, but later joined the music collective Zero Fatigue. The collective’s stylistic identity leans away from the harsher, aggressive style of Chicago’s Hip-Hop scene, aiming to, as the writer for Sniffers in that last link put it, “offer you an overlooked softer side to [Chicago’s] sound.”
And that comes through here. Lenae’s Alt R&B and Neo-Soul foundation is infused, throughout the album, with a variety of other styles — lofi Hip-Hop, Chamber and Synth Pop, Jazz, Reggae, and various electronic elements. Bird’s Eye, Lenae’s sophomore album, is an exercise in flexibility, held together by light and airy, but precise and technical vocals. The amazing thing is that, as light as her vocals are, they’re still incredibly assertive. Even when she’s pulled back, the composition and mix keep her front-and-center.
The album kicks off with “Genius”, a poppy and funky little banger which is fun and catchy and immediately makes me want more. It’s followed by the more R&B-forward “Bad Idea”, and the styles and exact genric blend continues to shift from song-to-song throughout the rest of the album. “Candy” and “Love is Blind” are a bit more soulful, but “Candy” leans into Reggae while “Love Is Blind” feels like a classically mournful R&B ballad which shifts into something more celebratory at about the 2:40 mark.
There is no one song which feels exemplary of Bird’s Eye. Each song, individually, utilizes different strengths, but they all have solid compositions and interesting hooks. And there’s no blanket approach here — the songs feel unique and dynamic. The instrumentation shifts between acoustic and electric; some tracks are synths and drum machines, others are densely-packed instrumentation.
I cannot underscore enough how much I love it when artists allow the song to lead the composition according to its needs, and it really feels like Lenae pulls that off on Bird’s Eye. Nothing feels unnecessary; and no track feels like it’s missing anything.
Really, I only have one (nitpicky) complaint: the Reggae element on “Candy” is an odd transition. It’s the sharpest stylistic turn on the album. It works, in its own way, but I also don’t feel that it inherently adds anything to the song.
I really enjoyed this one, start-to-finish. It is slightly on the short side, at only 35 minutes, but there are no missteps, and the album’s entire runtime is a great ambient vibe.
Rating: Blue
Spoiler, though, there’s another review coming, probably next week, with another artist who I am absolutely ecstatic to add to my regular rotation.
Also, not the only 25-year-old on my list with an August release date; Sabrina Carpenter also turned 25 this year.