Steve Lacy Gemini Rights review RCA
Music, Sounds

Steve Lacy, Gemini Rights: REVIEW

by Dave MacIntyre

“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.

For more on Steve Lacy, please visit his linktree.

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Posted in Music, Sounds

by Dave MacIntyre

Contributing editor for Music
Dave MacIntyre is a Montreal-based freelance journalist. His primary topic of interest is music, but is equally comfortable writing about sports, current events, and Montreal-related initiatives. Outside of Cult MTL, his bylines can be found in publications like BeatRoute and Northern Transmissions. And no, he is not related to Reba, nor to the WWE wrestler Drew, nor to Joey from New Kids on the Block.