Now, I assume all of us have heard The Weeknd, through Drake's successful "word of mouth" tactic, the doors for canadian native Abel Tesfaye opened quicker than the hearts and legs of his female listeners. He practically birthed a new movement, and put R&B back on the map with experimental sounds and ambiance, this dude samples Beach House, Thieves Like Us and other obscure acts. Now, he and Drake made a movement of their own, leaving all of the work behind them to fellow Toronto artists. OVOXO was born from both Drake's OVO (October's Very Own) and The Weeknd's XO. With that being said, for this review we focus on one of XO's finest, perhaps taking a few of The Weeknd's influence.. We introduce to you.. Julian Cruz (Julian) and his "Black Heart" mixtape.
Black Heart is an experimental R&B album in the very definition of the genre, with mixes of Spanish guitars, post-dub like beats, reverb induced piano and beautiful amplification of clean guitar tones worthy of a rock act, Julian's voice is complimented by various elements, like The Weeknd, and JMSN the beats are nothing short of intricate and interesting. A lot goes on behind the crooner, from the first track.. "Intrinsic Worth" we get this eerie feel from the get go, Julian's voice welcomes you as he sings, the song then immediately swings from pads into this guitar arp that leads into the verse, first lyrics have to do with the preparation Julian goes through before a sexual encounter, and then elaborates on the topic also by talking to the girl and basically showing her the ropes. Now, some people may notice that his voice and the music sometimes don't fit, something sounds off almost, well this record has absolutely no auto tune, completely natural which means he sometimes sings off key, you'd think that might be a horrible thing, but it sounds good. Who knows? Maybe more people will start singing off key if this record sees a lot of success. Anyway, "JOY" is the second song off of this album and this one's actually kind of touching, not in just a sexy way but it's legitimately a nice, pleasant song to listen to. Nice guitars, calming synth pads, and lyrics about that special someone, the beat also has some of those awesome modulated pitch samples we love so much. Something different, a direction into perhaps a more Indie band like feel, who knows. It works, it's weird but it works. But the cute message didn't last long, and who are we kidding, we love a good fuck song, we love sexual, sensual music. In his next track Julian picks up right where he left off, explaining to his partner how good he is in bed, he's very convincing when he tells her it's "Different This Time" he even asks the girl if she knows what she's doing at one point, a tale of drugs, hot women, something we've heard from XO before, and all I'm saying is that we would like to be invited to one of these occasions, these songs make everyone to party with XO. So bring the pads, the weird vocal production and throw in some riffs that sound like Carlos Santana himself was in the booth and I think any woman would like to get naked. It's nature, Julian understood this and he continues this process for much of the album, "Ascencion", "Pace It", "Bonita" (Pretty Lady) are loaded with these classical guitar tones, as for "Potion" and the title track "Black Heart" have a much darker creepy tone, clean yet creepy.. Some effects, maybe some wah or anything that could be found on any guitarist's pedal board, but damn it sounds so good. One of favorite tracks, "Believer" has this incredible piano tone, and could not sound sexier, the drums are so elaborate for an R&B track, and in the bridge has this sort of drop with some synth. In this track Julian speaks on what he does best apparently, fuck and we don't mind it, because these songs are dope. The introduction to "Black Heart" is amazing, and could have not been produced better, that track takes and finishes the album with a bang, the dubstep like bass and the rock band like vocals, it's short but so good. And even with it's brief duration still manages to make us love the track.
In conclusion, XO is a group of talented people. Musicians, video directors, artists in both visual realm as well as production, they need not one outsider to step in. Unsigned, and dangerous, The Weeknd, Drop X Life, Omari Shakir, and Julian. This is a crew to look out for, and with a backing from Drake there's endless possibilities because whether you like, Drake or OVO you must admit. He has power.
Every XO artist, and their mixtapes are available for free. The Weeknd's trilogy, Drop X Life's debut as well as Julian's "Black Heart"
This mixtpe is worth the listen. 7/10
Notable tracks: Believer, Pace It, Black Heart, Potion and Intrinsic Worth.
Black Heart by hearjulian
0 comments:
Post a Comment