big confessions

Jai Paul - “Do You Love Her Now / He”

Jai Paul has returned. The long-absent singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassist/drummer/mixer has reappeared, making his leaked album (now titled Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)) available on streaming services for the first time, as well as dropping a new “double b-side” to the album, “Do You Love Her Now / He”.

This marks Paul’s first official release since “Jasmine – demo” (released in March 2012) and his first public comments since 16 tracks of his music were sold without his consent by unknown parties on Bandcamp in April 2013. Paul issued a statement saying he was not behind the release and urging fans not to buy the album. Since that moment, Paul had not released any music under his own name nor made any public remarks.

Along with the new material, he has included a message to fans with a pay-what-you-want download of his leaked album. I would absolutely encourage you to read his letter, which you can see in full here. In it, Paul goes to great lengths to explain his side of what happened six years ago and the frustrations (both long-term and short-term) that ensued. He also speaks about rehabilitation, both through therapy and with the creation of the Paul Institute, an artist collective/label founded to nurture creative growth and release music from new, unique artists (more context on that here).

As if his sheer reappearance isn’t gracious enough, he has released these two new tracks as an expression of, in his words, “how grateful and appreciative I am for the friends, artists, colleagues and strangers that have stuck by me and shown so much love, support and mad patience over the last however many years.”

These two songs are a welcome gift for anyone who fell in love with Jai Paul’s music back in the first half of this decade. “Do You Love Her Now” staggers in unassumingly, with a creeping bass guitar that almost imitates John Williams’ Jaws theme. A snare fill makes way for a familiar duo: Paul’s lilting falsetto and his bright jazz guitar darting in and out of syncopated rhythms. Those two elements, along with plenty of synths and hand claps, were the foundational DNA of Paul’s songs like “Str8 Outta Mumbai”, “Jasmine – demo” and “Genevieve – Unfinished”; to hear them in brand-new compositions is in of itself exhilarating. 

While these songs aren’t 100% recent works (Paul stated they are two tracks he was working on at the time of the leak), they clearly are not relics dusted off for fan satiation either. “Do You Love Her Now” features a beautiful vocal bridge by Paul Institute artist Fabiana Palladino, which not only adds another texture in the swirling concoction but also marks a stark change from his previous, very solitary recordings. In his letter, Paul refers to his all of the leaked material as “stuff that I began writing as a teenager in my room just for fun” and to the 2013 album’s great benefit, that is exactly how it sounds. The goofy skits, the raucous layering of samples and instrumentation, and the unhinged energy of the whole project all feel so delightfully unconstrained in their composition. Despite Paul having been signed to XL Recordings since 2010, Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) was so representative of our present Soundcloud-centric generation of musicians and producers working out of their own bedroom studios. In opposition, Palladino’s presence (she also helped on the lyrics of “He”) grounds Paul’s new release as his first made with collaboration in mind (if not directly meant to be viewed as part of a collective.)

“Do You Love Her Now” also demonstrates another major development in Paul’s strongest talent: his mixing. Leak 04-13’s audio mix was its most idiosyncratic quality, from the overwhelming synths on songs like “Zion Wolf Theme – Unfinished” and “100,000 – Unfinished” to the violent volume modulation on songs like “BTSTU – demo” and “Crush – Unfinished”. My personal favorite of Jai Paul’s songs, “Genevieve – Unfinished”, is a perfection of his perpetual balancing act: drums, hand claps, buzzing synths, cowbell, warped samples and Paul’s ever-active guitar all combine in near-cacophony.  In most contemporary music, mixing only reaches the listener as an unnoticed effect, a process that stabilizes and hides the seams. In contrast, Paul's mixes on Leak 04-13 are the shifting tectonic plates his music is built on, as they amplify, elide and crystallize each of Paul’s bittersweet yearnings.

Even then, the mix on “Do You Love Her Now” releases a different energy than his previous work; more patient and discreetly-layered (but still obviously crafted by Paul’s hands.) Volume modulations are less turbulent, the tunneling bassline leads but never overwhelms and the high-end elements of the song (Paul’s falsetto and guitar) skirt above the track gracefully. The (brilliant) harshness associated with Leak 04-13 has, at least to a degree, been alleviated. “Do You Love Her Now” goes down smooth, each instrument complimenting each other in a serene jam, reminiscent of a blissed-out Prince song. The whole track is balance by way of restraint, much more of a seduction than an aural barrage.  And for those Jai Paul fans that do preferred a more aggressive hand in his mixing, Paul graces the listener with an alien-like intro to his second verse: a fade-in of his vocals with a metallic-sounding filter that makes Paul’s lush vocals only sound more inhuman. "Do You Love Her Now" is not the product of 2012 Jai Paul breaking onto the scene, but instead the product of a later Jai Paul evolving and furthering his craft.

The second half of the double B-side, “He” returns to solo-Jai Paul mode, starting with a delicate guitar intro accompanied by drum kicks and a little falsetto repeating the title. Gliding synths sneak into the procession of instruments as the song builds. Then, the quiet tension releases as a drum machine fill leads into a warped bass groove bouncing in between echoing hand claps. This bassline operates as the backbone of the track (as Paul's bass often does) with lyrics sounding like emotional  intonations rather than actual words. “He” does feel like the lesser of the two new songs, an entertaining sketch more than a finished song. Ultimately though, what could be more in keeping with the release of Leak 04-13, where almost every track ends in “demo” or “unfinished”?

What Jai Paul’s work will continue to sound like in the future, or even when we might hear from him next, is uncertain. In his letter, Paul makes it especially clear his absence was due to circumstances surrounding the robbery of his music. Speaking of the time after the leak, Paul says: "There was a lot going through my mind, but the hardest thing to grasp was that I’d been denied the opportunity to finish my work and share it in its best possible form."  Like Young Thug, Charli XCX or Playboi Carti, Jai Paul is just one of our generation's defining musical voices who has been hurt, both personally and professionally, by leaks. Paul's experience is especially unfortunate considering he seems (from the outside, at least) to be an artist who has avoided the mechanisms of the recording industry that destroy young artists. How much his artistic growth has been stunted is not clear (imagining hypotheticals is a short-sided game to play) but Paul does speak of “having therapy of various kinds” which “has helped [him] get to a place where [he] can begin to think about returning to music.” While leaks can't entirely be stopped, their propagation within music communities absolutely can be. The damage done to Jai Paul, both as an artist and a person, is a signal of the impact that fans and consumers have, especially in an internet-driven world.

Just days after Paul's return, singer-songwriter Mitski responded to backlash over her decision to step away from touring music. While Paul has never even played a live show, their problems have a similar source: the constant need to release music, to tour, to force artists to exist on the consumer's whim. This pressure, originally generated by the music industry but now emboldened by fandoms, is not only a cancer to creativity but a poison to healthy living. Art should not exist at the will of those consuming it and being a fan of an artist needs to come with respect for an artist's personhood in addition to their creative will. In an age of surprise albums, instant availability and hyper-active stan culture (all positive things in theory), it's easy to see how and why this basic dignity has not been afforded. But it is up to fans, as a community and as a culture, to work with artists rather than against them.

So, I'll throw it back to Jai Paul's letter one last time:

"I believe it’s important for artists as creators to have some control over the way in which their work is presented, at a time that they consider it complete and ready.” 

in the break

Charli XCX & Christine and the Queens - "Gone"

In what will surely be one of the stranger major label singles released this year, pop-futurist (and my personal messiah) Charli XCX has dropped a new song called "Gone", a cathartic duet with French songstress Christine and the Queens, as the second single from her new album titled Charli. “Gone” is another step in Charli XCX's prolific warpath to unite experimental pop production with major label hooks.

Thudding yet bouncy synths are the foundation of the single, a regular element in Charli's recent music with producer and P.C. Music founder A.G. Cook (who co-produced "Gone" with Ö and Lotus IV). Charli sings first, with a verse detailing feelings of isolation and animosity at a party. The pre-chorus follows, highlighting one of Charli XCX's great songwriting talents: her ability to bounce syllables in and out of rhythm with production. Her melody drives the proclamations in perfect syncopation ("I feel so unstable, fucking hate these people/How they making me feel lately/They making me weird, baby, lately"). Charli's ability to fit angular and complex lyrics in (and through) very commercial beats is one of her virtues and this carries over to the hyper-poetic chorus, a series of questions sung in rhetorical duet.

Why do we keep when the water runs?

Why do we love if we're so mistaken?

Why do we leave when the chase is done?

Don't search me in here, I'm already gone, baby

Why do we keep when the water runs?

Why do we love?

The very ornate lyrics were written mostly by Christine and she sings solo on the second verse with phrases about partying that could only ever exist on a Charli XCX/Christine and the Queens collab ("Am I a smoke?/Am I the sun?/And who decides?"). The chorus returns and the track builds to a thudding, clicking breakdown of chopped-up vocals and deep, undulating synths. A quiet, shimmering SOPHIE-esque synth melody adds just another complication to the arch creation already at hand.

While Christine takes the lead lyrically, the song (like many of Charli's collaborations over the last two years) still fits under Charli's recent house style. Here, Charli is as much curator as pop star. The song was born out of sessions between Charli, frequent Charli co-writer Noonie Bao and producer Lotus IV. Charli then sent a rough draft of the song to Christine, Christine provided lyrics and Charli brought in A.G. Cook (who has been her most significant collaborator of the past three years) to help with production.

How precisely "the sausage was made" usually stays behind closed doors on a major label release but it’s clear Charli is the point of convergence. More than even most pop stars, her artistic identity is often declared most by her choice of collaborators. Her constantly rotating cavalcade of co-writers, producers and featured artists allow Charli to constantly push her own songwriting in new, boundless directions. Charli’s Vroom Vroom EP, produced by SOPHIE and released in 2016, was a violent expansion of what experimental pop music was and could be. Each project released by Charli since has followed in Vroom Vroom’s footsteps: disrupting, cannibalizing and inverting pop music. “Gone” is a sign of hope that Charli will do the same.


   

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The accompanying music video was directed by Colin Solal Cardo, who also recently made the lovely Ever Again video for Robyn. It features Charli and Christine initially tied down against a generic sedan (surely the most unsexy car that's ever been in a Charli video), two women bound to the same machine. As the ode to loneliness continues, the women start to break free, helping each other escape their confines and then dance with (and for) each other.

The visual makeup of the video is often frustratingly bound by convention to ever feel truly groundbreaking, with lazily-conjured effects (fire, rain, smoke and sparks) that add visual texture but stale quickly. This limitation is only amplified by the fact that Charli and Christine have incredible chemistry, their energy feeding and stoking each other, giving the very physical video a compassionate (and homoerotic) warmth. The video ultimately works, but only due to their magnetism that creates a unique space for catharsis, empathy and intimacy between two talented female performers.