![]() ![]() It's rare for an artist to aptly blend both adventurous music and adventurous lyrics at the same time. For some listeners, no doubt, this may be where Gallant will lose them. After all, what is the most impressive element here? The words, the imagery, the message? Gallant falls in to a rare class of artist where there is such a level of depth to his lyricism that it's a daunting task to even tackle it. This is album long, with consistency that makes it border on infuriating. After all, one of Gallant's lead singles for Ology, and track seven on the album, Weight in Gold opens with much the same level of profundity - 'Black dust in orbit, cascades down like a parachute,īricks on my shoulders, this gravity hurts when you know the truth'. Evidently, no rules or expectations of limitations exist for Gallant. This level of mysticism should be difficult, if not nigh on impossible, to maintain for the entirety of an album by any artist. And assuredly no level of exploration as that which Gallant offers. It's a profoundly familiar series of sentiments, and yet if this isn't unexplored territory for R&B music, it's certainly territory that has seen little foot traffic. Bourbon is Gallant crooning about a 'cold' relationship, and his attempts to break free from the same, emerging from the other side with little concept or understanding of where to take himself. Yet, they aren't another Ginsberg masterwork - they're Gallant's. After all, if the same lines were found in an Allen Ginsberg poem, it's likely that nobody would even think to bat an eyelid. The same song carries a chorus of 'Cause I loved in cold blood and got used to it, angels say trust the detox, but I'm shaking I need it like bourbon in my coffee cup', and it's so distinctly clear that Gallant is no ordinary artist. In earnest, how else could you hope to respond to lyrics such as 'I'm a headless horseman on quilted sand dunes, with my neck wide open, I pray for refuge', which Gallant not only sings, but opens with, on track four of Ology titled Bourbon. ![]() There is such a mystic, otherworldly element to the lyrics that it's almost impossible not to be captured by them. Inarguably, it is Gallant's lyricism that really allows him to stand out here. Flitting effortlessly between played down electronica, jazz elements, the vibrancy of a pop/disco blend and all the while never stepping wholly outside the genre of R&B, Gallant parades his both his voice and masterfully etched lyrics through the Temples of Doom - dodging potential booby traps of ambition outweighing ability, and all the while still able to swoop in and swipe his hat back before the temple can claim it. When not exploring the depth and/or height of his own voice - regularly testing his rapturous falsetto, and exploring how far it can carry deep in to the cosmos of the sonic unknown - Gallant can be heard exploring the borders of his genre. If the latter is true, meet Gallant - R&B's Indiana Jones. In theory, at least, recognising the landscape of modern music should also mean that innovation and adventure in a music genre is appreciated to an extent that it has never been before. This can often lend to fans of music, at least now, being forced to embrace cliches and what is familiar, as well as allowing artists to cling to what is safe in manners which may well have, once upon a time, been deemed lazy. Much like archaeology, or global exploration, much of the world has already being discovered - leaving little to the imagination. If you think that Gallant's voice sounds vaguely familiar, you aren't alone.
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