Jessie Reyez, pictured above, released her debut studio album March 27th (Courtesy of Creative Commons).
Ahead of her debut studio album, Jessie Reyez told DuJour “I want people to feel connected and walk away cradling their flaws.”
The Canadian singer released her highly anticipated project Before Love Came to Kill Us on March 27. The contemporary R&B album is a cohesive assemblage of juxtaposed sounds with influences ranging from neo-soul to indie-rock and alternative-pop.
Since her first EP, 2017’s Kiddo, Reyez has been able to touch audiences through her raw vulnerability with songs like “Figures,” one of her first hit singles. The song is a heart-wrenching ballad about loyalty and betrayal with the backdrop of a melodic guitar. She brings her voice to high-registered rasps filled with anguish and vengeance.
This intense vocal styling is a signature of hers used to create climactic moments throughout her studio debut in a way that feels like an emotional purging. Her raspy style is reminiscent of the late Amy Winehouse, who Reyez identified as one of her biggest musical inspirations along with Bob Marley in an interview with Billboard.
In the same interview, she describes her own music as “Quinten Tarantino,” saying “I love his idea of juxtaposition and contrast, like how there can be a bloody scene with guts flying everywhere and red all over the walls, meanwhile there’s like classical music playing.” This idea of contrast is apparent throughout the album as she writes about love using violent and homicidal metaphors.
Death is a common theme in the album, whether it be killing her lover, mistresses or herself—even the album’s cover art features Reyez in a white gown sitting on a coffin. The seamless transition between love and death comes through naturally as if it is necessary to use one to accurately describe the other.
In “Kill Us,” Reyez sings “I know nobody gets outta love alive / We either break up when we're young / Or we say goodbye when we die.” Although her love songs can be dark and filled with grief, there is often a pervading sense of hope that gives her songs a comforting and authentic nuance.
In addition to her passionate love songs, Reyez conveys her ferocious work ethic with crude confidence in songs like “DEAF (who you are)” where she sings lyrics like, “Man what the fuck's a day off?” and “I'm taking everything I came for / I ain't fuckin' askin.'” This vulgar display of grit and dedication has also appeared on previous EPs with songs like “Dear Yessie” and “Great One.”
The second-generation Colombian immigrant got her start through The Remix Project, an artistic incubator based in Toronto that gives people from marginalized communities the resources and mentorship necessary to pursue careers in creative fields like music.
Like many people with immigrant family backgrounds, Reyez is motivated by the sacrifices her parents made to give her a better life, and she utilizes that pressure in order to keep herself motivated to work hard at her craft. Her Grammy nominated EP Being Human in Public opens with a song called “Saint Nobody” where she talks about this experience in the lyrics. She sings, “my daddy came from nothing, so I gotta make this something / Worth the nights that he stayed up fighting / My momma came from nothing, so I gotta make this something / Worth the nights that she stayed up crying / I could bet it all on me.”
As an artist that is constantly weaving together contrasting worlds, the album’s fluidity in genre sounds effortless. Sorrowful love ballads come natural to Reyez, and she even features a ballad sung entirely in Spanish, “La Memoria.”
Reyez’s eclectic sounds throughout the album features folk instrumentals in songs like “Intruders” and utilizes the droney sound beds of contemporary R&B in songs like “Imported”. These sounds alongside pop melodies with hip-hop impact creates a diverse sounding album.
Combined with the emotional depth of her lyrics, all of these rhythmic and sonic elements come together in a fully realized body of work which allows for a dynamic album that remains cohesive enough to paint a holistic picture of a young woman’s journey of love and self-actualization.
If you haven’t listened to Jessie Reyez yet, I definitely recommend you check out Before Love Came to Kill Us.