Mykki Blanco – Stay Close to Music
Multifaceted artist Mykki Blanco returns with Stay Close to Music, offering an emotional journey guided through a multitude of twisting genres
Pink Diamond Bezel, the opening track of multifaceted artist Mykki Blanco's latest album, Stay Close to Music, is almost a rhapsody. A soothing wind pipe later tangles into a manic concoction of deep percussion and layered vocals. Blanco’s thematic switch of genres is hypnotic. Lucky begins with a trap rap, ad-libs galore. In an instance the track becomes an unexplainable bubble of sound, synths bouncing in line with the vocals.
These shifts in sound correlate to the two sides of the album. Tracks like Ketamine convey a sense of unseriousness. The rap elements pepper in pop references to balance out more hard-hitting lyrics. Whereas tracks like French Lessons are more melodic, using a glistening call-and-response with Kelsey Lu to portray feelings of love and loss. On Your Feminism Is Not My Feminism, a minimal backing of a western piano conjoins a rumble of cymbals and an emphatic saxophone, as the poignant lyrics absorb a listener’s attention.
Stay Close to Music is captivating. Unable just to play in a background, Mykki Blanco has created an album that needs your full attention. It constitutes a narrative that is not only guided through words, but also sounds.
Listen to: Your Feminism Is Not My Feminism, Pink Diamond Bezel, Steps