What a strange and beguiling experience this is. After reading the artist bio, especially the part about them feeling best suited to rap and R&B, I certainly was expecting anything like this to emanate from the speakers as I dropped the virtual needle on the digital single.
Because far from either of those two genres, what greeted me was a soft and strange blend of old time, music hall piano, hazy vocals-as-an-instrument washes and a part-philosophical spoken word piece topping things off.
At under two minutes, it feels like an album interlude or a short section of a film score that neatly bridges the divide between early black-and-white flicks and a modern art-house production, than a single in the conventional sense.
But I guess that Lemo isn’t looking to do things conventionally, which is admirable. Why conform when you can explore? Why fulfil expectations when you can challenge comfort zones? Why put out a standard, heard-it-all-before, three-minute pop song when you can offer the listener something that makes them pause for thought?
We need more Lemos in the world.
