It’s not all that often in the music industry that you hear an artist whose sound is so uniquely their own that it can’t be genre-defined. Chiiild’s debut album, released this past February, is just that. Aptly titled Synthetic Soul, the album combines hints of R&B, jazz and psychedelic soul – and 100% absolutely yes, it’s just as good as it sounds. The duo have created a sound that's somehow both refreshingly new and nostalgically timeless.
Chiiild formed five years ago when Artist Yoni and his production partner Pierre. Both are well-experienced in the industry, boasting an impressive track record of collabs with top artists including Skrillex, Usher, Diplo and Jacob Banks. Their depth of experience translates in the quality of their music: this certainly isn’t the debut album of artists struggling to find their voice.
The fact that this duo is Canadian and Montreal-based is just a cherry on top for me, and Yoni partially credits his Canadian upbringing for exposing him to a diverse palette of music, citing inspirations from D’Angelo to Tame Impala.
All seven of the album’s tracks are carried by vibrant string arrangements and woozy beats, complimenting the smoothness of Yoni's voice. He manages to sing with an air of breezy confidence, even in songs that center on self-doubt and hardships.
This comes through especially in the opening track, Count Me Out. Setting the tone of the album, the song’s lyrics intentionally lack specifics, allowing for a relatable anthem of hope and perseverance (“don’t count me out, ‘cause I’ll come back swinging”). What I love most about this track is the way it plays with shifting vocals: verses are sung by a low, muted voice – almost as if fighting to be heard in a crowd – before the chorus allows the voice to break through to the foreground. The song's strength also comes from the cool, detached energy of the singer, which makes this a fight song that isn’t looking for validation. For a debut single, it's impressively polished.
The second track, Back To Life, features the gentle vocals of Zimbabwean singer Shungudzo reflecting on self-doubt and the possibility of afterlife. And instead of just sounding esoteric, her gentle musings come across as genuinely dreamy. She once said in an interview that she and Chiiild “really bonded over being African artists who want to use music to tell stories about diversity, ask questions about humanity, and unify people over shared personal experiences."
The album's theme takes a turn with the third track Hands Off Me, a tune about indulging in love with another person. There’s such a smooth sexiness to the song, with the singer breathily commanding “don’t take your hands off of me” over and over through the chorus. (One for a certain time and place.)
Then we have Darling and Sunday Morning as the album’s unconventional love letters. Though sweet in sentiment, I find these tracks pretty underwhelming.
Pirouette, on the other hand, blew me away the first time I heard it. The most elegant song of the bunch, it experiments with all kinds of vocal layering and panning (I think --- hardly know a thing about music production). I love the dynamic of the higher dreamy tones with the smoky, bass voices in the verses. (If listening with headphones, pay attention to the small dose of 8D audio at 1:29.) Overall this track is an incredibly smooth listen whose rhythm forces you to melt into it.
Finally, the closing track Easy On Yourself completely sheds the feeling of easy-going grandeur created by the album so far, and that’s exactly the point. The song brings us back to reality. Its lyrics recount a conversation with yourself in times of anxiety and doubt, and the instrumental arrangements quite literally mimic the ‘ups and downs’ of intense moments of angst. Because of that, you might not (I probably won’t) intentionally seek this song out for a listen. But the choice to close the album this way is telling: we started with a song of perseverance and we’re ending with one of self-assurance.
Altogether, this album has proven Chiiild’s uniquely wide-ranging talent and has set the bar high for the duo's future releases.
Happy listening!
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