Jessie Reyez Finds Steadiness in New Yessie Album

Picture Supply: John Jay

“If you happen to died tomorrow, I do not suppose I would cry, I gave you one too many nights,” sings Jessie Reyez in “Mutual Buddies,” a single off her new album, “Yessie,” launched on Sept. 16. Brimmed with a lot of the gritty and uncooked R&B and soul sounds Reyez is thought for, the 11-track album is her second studio album and fourth undertaking. In “Yessie,” the Grammy-nominated performer mesmerizes along with her distinctive, raspy voice whereas providing recent sounds, hopeful lyrics, and dance vibes.

These expressions of pleasure amid heart-wrenching tracks replicate the journey Reyez has undertaken in her personal private life. “I am at all times simply speaking about my life and what I’m going by means of, however I am undoubtedly in a special house,” Reyez says in an interview with hollywoodnewsflash.us. “I’ve simply needed to develop, ? And heal. So I have been making extra of an effort to heal myself and to make my psychological and bodily well being a precedence.” The album is a musical journey that begins with the down-to-earth manifesto “Temper,” by which Reyez declares, “I discovered to like the rain, it is all the identical, nonetheless received a smile on my face,” earlier than diving into emotional tracks with the sort of honest lyrics that really feel like too-much-too-real confessionals (“I like each flaw I see, that is all new,” she sings in “Endlessly” that includes 6lack). “Queen St. W” has a catchy tune with daring lyrics that remember the singer whereas leaning in on the “tóxica” (poisonous) vibes. In it, she sings, “The b*tches you need, need me,” whereas telling her previous lover that he made a monster.

When requested if she identifies as “la tóxica” — a kind of on-line quip amongst Latinx millennials and Gen Zers by means of which they poke enjoyable at poisonous love traits (i.e. jealousy) — she says she as soon as did determine with it, however she’s modified. “It is good to have a bit little bit of poisonous in there too,” she says nonetheless, “as a result of I do not suppose you must preserve choosing a scab that you simply’re making an attempt to concurrently heal.”

Reyez is a Colombian-Canadian artist who’s always exhibiting satisfaction for her metropolis of Toronto, whether or not that be collaborating with its different stars like Daniel Caesar or celebrating what she referred to as the town’s “renaissance in music.” And on this album, she additionally exalts her Colombian roots with a distinguished pattern of “Los Caminos de la Vida” (“The Walks of Life”) by the band Los Diablitos in “Temper,” the album’s first observe. The unique is a vallenato basic of Colombian music that is common throughout Latin America by which the group sings, “The walks of life should not what I believed.” Reyez needed to pull some strings when clearing the pattern. Only a day earlier than she needed to flip within the album to Fmly/Island Data, she lastly determined to name up her good friend Colombian music artist big Carlos Vives for assist. She shares how he moved mountains to make it occur.

“It is so poetic, , for what Carlos Vives and his music imply to me, and for what that tune means to me, and what that pattern means to me and my heritage and my roots,” she says.

The second half of the album contains the only “Mutual Buddies” and the dance-pop bop “Tito’s,” by which she sings in Spanglish. In “Solely One,” the most recent single off “Yessie,” Reyez sings over a cool, melodic beat, inviting love into her life: “I do not need somebody who’s for everyone, I simply wanna be your just one.” The observe, produced by Grammy-nominated producer Rykeyz (he is produced for the likes of Demi Lovato and H.E.R.), is the sort of tune that may seize the radio waves.

And Reyez is poised for a takeover. Along with her sound, she has already captivated the music trade and attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, getting enormous props from the likes of Eminem, who featured her not as soon as however twice in his 2018 album, “Kamikaze.” She additionally received the Beyoncé cosign with a function on “Black Is King,” completely expressing a villain’s essence in “Scar.” In 2020, when she was set to tour with Billie Eilish, all the pieces needed to come to a halt due to COVID-19. Yet one more kind of alignment occurred in her profession with the discharge of her first studio album, “Earlier than Love Got here to Kill Us,” one which had a concentrate on grief in a time when the world was in deep mourning.

This new album seems like her inventive rise from these ashes. Proper because the world can also be nonetheless making sense of the previous two years, Reyez stays true to the connection and betrayal tracks which are beloved by her followers. Towards the tip of the album, within the punk-fused “Break Me Down,” her highly effective voice shines as she sings, “Wasn’t wholesome however rattling it was enjoyable, I am finished losing time being brokenhearted if you’re all I needed.”

For Reyez, exhibiting this transition again into issues of affection and romance was pivotal whilst she’s centered on self-love. “You possibly can’t self-love too near the solar as a result of then you find yourself turning into too self-sufficient and also you overlook that, oh wait, for partnerships or for relationships with household or pals, you continue to need to be acutely aware,” she explains, including that she stays grounded in household, meditation, and prayer. “The bottom line is to seek out stability, so proper now I am discovering stability with the album. This type of spiral journey, , proper now I am personally [there].”

“Yessie” is definitely a mirrored image of this duality with the lyrics — and sonically, too. Reyez’s sound is evolving with pop singles which are reaching for stardom, but she’s very a lot nonetheless planted on the earth and in her reality. “The method did not change as a result of it is me speaking about my life,” she says. “However I feel I modified, like I am making extra of an effort to provide the grace that I’d always give different folks to myself for as soon as.”

Picture Supply: John Jay