An urgent finger-snapping punctuates an evenly-structured vocal harmony sent straight from heaven in “High Fashion.” “Boom – The Explosion” crushes us with its avant-pop groove, but it contains none of the textural affection “Sometimes / I Want You Around” has in spades.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/signedlovetheartist/
As stunning a feature as the strings are in “Lovin’ You,” they simply cannot compete with the vocal HeIsTheArtist is laying down beside their melody. Where he’s allowing the blushing bassline of “Boom – Love Version” to enrapture us with its cosmetic appeal or relying on his natural skill behind the mic in the remastered version of “Boom,” there’s scarcely a moment in HeIsTheArtist’s Adam & Eve in which this up and coming pop musician isn’t dropping something truly hypnotic. Blending the razzle dazzle of his original material with cover songs from Roddy Ricch, Snoh Aalegra, Brittany Spears and Minnie Riperton, Adam & Eve shows us what this player can do when there’s nothing to stifle his creative ambitions, and in my view, the results of his experimentations are definitely something worth writing home about this September.
There’s definitely a surreal approach to the cover songs in this record, with “High Fashion” and “Lovin’ You” standing out as two of the more complicated and tonally expressive tracks I’ve listened to all summer long. I get the impression HeIsTheArtist was going out of his way to make sure no one could accuse him of recycling anything here – from the beats to the melodies that frame every lyric (or, in many cases, harmony-implied verse), there’s nothing present in any of the covers to even suggest a watered-down compositional vibe. The arrangements are original, yielding so much tension in the instrumentation that the vocal is tasked with providing the catharsis all by itself. This is definitely true of the remastered “Boom,” which despite sporting a singer-centric mix ensures that no melodic detail winds up sacrificed in the name of mainstream accessibility. HeIsTheArtist clearly has loftier goals than merely selling some records in 2020, and were this not true I don’t believe we would be listening to the fantastically passionate work in Adam & Eve that we are at the moment.
I-HEART RADIO: https://www.iheart.com/artist/heistheartist-32710988/?autoplay=true
If this is a sneak preview of what this performer is planning on throwing down every time he gets into the studio to make a new disc, I think we’re going to be hearing and seeing a lot more of HeIsTheArtist in the future. There’s a very artsy, almost neo-progressive element to Adam & Eve that pulls together some of the loose ends noticeable in the individual releases that led up to this compiled offering, and I would love to hear him explore it a little further.
The potential is limitless at this stage of the game, and as long as he continues to play with the kind of emotional presence he has in his work so far, I don’t see any reason why HeIsTheArtist shouldn’t emerge from the shadows of obscurity to a warm welcome from the mainstream in the next couple of years.
Troy Johnston