Embellished with loss, grief and longing, R&B artist Keshi released his sophomore album “Requiem” on Friday, Sept. 13. The album followed the reveals of four singles, all dropped during the summer: “Say,” “Dream,” “Texas” and “Soft Spot.” These singles are included in the full album, which reflects on the themes of personal loss and its effect on the human psyche. Named after a musical composition to honor the dead, Keshi blends melancholic concepts of death with alternative production to explore the complexities of the relationship between humanity and grief.
From the beginning, Keshi makes his commitment to the album’s concept clear. The first track, “Amen,” immediately transports listeners into an otherworldly space with its harmonies. Keshi’s scratchy vocals add a desperate tone to the song, further layering upon the hopeful quality of the song’s piano instrumental. Despite being only a minute long, “Amen” checks off the dynamic performance that listeners desire from Keshi, both vocally and production-wise.
Throughout the album, Keshi highlights his strong, emotional vocals, which add an admirable depth to each song’s already creative direction. Having experience in producing his own songs, Keshi did not hold back when it came to challenging himself with hard melodies. However, he proves that he is not only able to deliver an immense amount of emotion with each line of every song but can cater his vocal tone towards a different feeling in each track. This gives every song on the album a unique, refreshing quality.
“Requiem” is not purely a new step for Keshi concept-wise — the album also showcases Keshi’s exploration into new genres, with “Texas” having country influence and using a harmonica as a primary instrument and “Bodies” illustrating his experimentation in indie-rock. “Id” is the climax of the album’s distinctiveness, with a clear change mid-song from contemporary to alternative. Taking inspiration from The Weeknd and Chase Atlantic, the three separated parts of the song clash surprisingly. Ultimately, the album’s biggest quality is its fearlessness in experimenting with different sounds, expanding upon Keshi’s overall discography and providing listeners with new and improved versions of his sound.
While Keshi indeed takes a step towards establishing a new version of himself, listeners of his first LP “GABRIEL” might grasp the importance of this album to Keshi more than new listeners. To older listeners, “Requiem” refines the production and quality of “GABRIEL” significantly with unique songs that many might not be able to imagine as Keshi’s. However, the album doesn’t experiment to a large enough extent that new listeners might have a hard time understanding Keshi’s expansion of his discography from his last album. “Requiem” is not an innovation by Keshi, but a revision of himself.
However, Keshi’s attempt at expanding his discography through a singular album poses consequences in its cohesiveness. Although the concept of “Requiem” is clear across most of the songs, the unique production and genre of each song make it challenging for the album to excel as one cohesive unit. Each song is trying to steal the other’s spotlight with its differences, making Keshi’s sophomore album feel more like a mixtape than a refined piece.
“Requiem” also suffers from inconsistencies across each song’s production. The production of track 13 “Id” is incredibly complex, with unique synths and melodies that combine to create a distinctive song. However, the fifth song “Like That” on the same tracklist suffers from an incredibly generic production that mellows out the chorus so much that the song takes away from the excitement of listening to a new album. The album’s songwriting also suffers, with every song having repetitive lyrics. This redundancy in a lack of distinct lyricism causes listeners to overlook the meaning of each song, which strips the album of its complex concept, which, with well-written lyrics, could have great potential in its storytelling.
Overall, “Requiem” feels like a rollercoaster of an album, with songs introducing new genres and emotions. Keshi’s vocal strength is clear in this album and is well-utilized; however, the ambiguity of each song’s production quality and the album’s general lack of cohesiveness can cause listeners to fall out of focus with the album’s complexities.
3.5/5
