Steve Lacy Gemini Rights review RCA

Steve Lacy, Gemini Rights: REVIEW

“The follow-up to 2019’s Grammy-nominated Apollo XXI sees Lacy’s warm, psychedelic take on bedroom pop and neo-soul go to bolder and more intimate places.”

Steve Lacy, Gemini Rights (RCA)

In a world that feels like it has too few of them, Steve Lacy is a true young musical wunderkind. On his sophomore album, Gemini Rights, the 24-year-old Compton multi-hyphenate — a singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer — only needs 35 minutes to create an album that’s quite ostensibly about a breakup, but ironically feels tailor-made for sunny days in the park. Lacy also shows himself to be equally comfortable singing about getting fucked on drugs as he is crooning about wooing a love interest. The follow-up to 2019’s Grammy-nominated Apollo XXI sees Lacy’s warm, psychedelic take on bedroom pop and neo-soul go to bolder and more intimate places. 

Sleepy piano-driven opener “Static” is a pristine tone-setter for the post-breakup rumination — one alternating between regret and fury — that acts as the album’s core theme, while lead single “Mercury” is basically a straight-up Bossa nova track. “Bad Habit,” the second single (and clear standout) from the album, lies musically somewhere between Mac DeMarco, Blood Orange and Prince. The ominous, synth-heavy “Cody Freestyle” explores Lacy’s struggle with codependency, and penultimate track “Sunshine,” featuring R&B songstress Foushée, is sung from the perspective of both parties in a failed relationship. With Gemini Rights, Steve Lacy has solidified himself as a modern-day auteur by delivering a concise, captivating project that invites us into his journey through love loss, and adapting to change. 9/10 Trial Track: “Bad Habit”

“Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy

This review was originally published in the August issue of Cult MTL.

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