Gemini Rights - Steve Lacy

I had big expectations going into this album. I have listened to Steve Lacy’s first album, Apollo XXI so many times I have lost count. I follow his social media religiously (I recommend the Instagram page for his dog, and his fashion page, fitvomit), and adore the projects he has produced for: from Kendrick Lamar to Vampire Weekend, Solange, and of course, The Internet.

A week before Gemini Rights was released, I read an article about Steve Lacy describing him as the "sexed up heir to Prince and Stevie Wonder." Although Lacy may not be the heir to Prince and Stevie (an impossibly tall order), he is charting his own path musically. As the fired-up journalist wrote about Lacy’s work, “there is a sense of an artist painting with colours he has mixed himself.” On Gemini Rights, Steve Lacy’s second album, he does exactly that. Gemini Rights is a smooth, playful, imaginative, and cohesive project, demonstrating both Lacy’s individualized style and the ways he pushes against it (ever so slightly).

After his breakout work as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-executive-producer on The Internet’s Grammy-nominated third album, Ego Death (while he was in High School!), Lacy began working on some solo tracks. Starting with the entrancing and dreamy pop single ‘C U Girl’, Lacy moved onto his first solo Album, Apollo XXI, also nominated for a Grammy. Both were recorded on his iPhone. As a producer Lacy excelled working with critically acclaimed Rnb, Funk, Indie-Rock, Hip-Hop, and Pop Artists. Regardless of the project, Lacy has curated his own style: smooth guitar riffs and romance-obsessed lyrics, with an underproduced-in-a-good-way bedroom pop type sound. Gemini Rights feels consistent with his past work, yet pushes against it. Lacy moves away from the looped-beat iPhone sounds to fuller, more expansive, and instrument-focused tracks. He dropped the iPhone and moved into the studio to record this album, collaborating heavily, most notably with the up-and-coming RnB star, Fousheé. On Gemini Rights Lacy steps into bossa-nova on the song, Mercury. On Helmet (my favorite track on the album), Lacy fills the song with cascading harmonies made with his sisters, singing about the need for self-protection in love “I tried to play pretend (ooh)//Try not to see the end (ah) // But I couldn't see you the way you saw me // Now I can feel the waste on me.” On Helmet, Lacy hits a falsetto that does sound quite a bit like Stevie Wonder. Throughout the album Lacy’s lyrics sway between sheepishness and confidence toward romance in the most endearing and relatable way.

Gemini Rights is Steve Lacy’s next step. Like all his previous work, Gemini Rights is extremely approachable. However, on this album, Lacy slowly expands his musical palate and methods to create a unique and beautiful summer-ending album that is now my album on repeat.