Revelations

Album review

Shamir Bailey has always been a restless talent. Before his success with his official debut album Ratchet, he let his music go wherever he wanted -- and it was that uniqueness that made him popular in the first place. However, trying to re-create Ratchet's winning combination of disco, synth-pop, and R&B felt confining to Bailey, and after parting ways with XL, he released the free, lo-fi album Hope and spent some time in a psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. All of these events impacted Revelations, a set of keenly observed songs that range from wry to heartbreaking. The pressure Bailey felt to please and conform is reflected in just how much his second album doesn't do either of those things. Made largely on a four-track recorder in two weeks, Revelations is a little more pulled together than the raw, sometimes meandering confessions of Hope, but it's nearly as cathartic. Bailey does as much as he can to let listeners know this is not Ratchet 2.0 on the opening track "Games," where the tension in his voice as he sings "I don't have much to offer you/But my heart, my soul and everything I've been through" is matched by nervy keyboards. Despite the suffocation and suppression he expresses on songs like this and with the album's artwork, Revelations is a showcase for the lightness that helped him survive hardships and span genres. He returns to the '90s indie and old-school country influences of his pre-Ratchet days, an unlikely combo that sounds completely natural on "You Have a Song" and "Astral Plane." Though Ratchet overflowed with witty wordplay, Revelations proves that Bailey is a songwriter with a lot to say as he pairs fuzzy sounds with lyrics full of clarity. "90s Kids" chronicles millennial struggles ("we watch our futures die") in a way that's lighthearted and deadly serious at the same time, while "Straight Boy" eloquently expresses Bailey's frustrations with appropriation ("they say I'm brave for being true but act like it's something they can't do"). It's a big change from the sound and attitude that earned Shamir acclaim, but Revelations succeeds as an honest and brave course correction from an artist who needs free rein over his music.
© Heather Phares /TiVo