A blur of genres with an irresistible charm.
Speaking of debuts that broke through the internet sphere, Genesis Owusu is one of those artists. Hailing from Australia, which also has some well-known artists like Tkay Maidza, Kirin J Callinan, Hiatus Kaiyote, I’m intrigued on checking what unique touches he will bring on his debut album, Smiling With No Teeth.
I still find myself in awe of what Genesis Owusu brewed with the sound he meshes in a great way, from funk to neo-soul to even synth-punk on some tracks as well. And these genres are knotted with compositions and production that are disjointed and clunky but still sound pretty sleek and groovy all the same. In addition, Genesis Owusu slips and swirls his cadence and tones that add to the overall janky tone of the album. Even if this album gets a bit too long, and the experimentation doesn’t always work, like the fleeting opener ‘On the Move!’ with the synth integration, the guitar playing on ‘Gold Chains’ with its rhythms, the repetitive vocal sample on ‘I Don’t See Colour’, the haunted instrumentation of ‘Easy’ that comes off as an outlier to the other wonkier tracks, and ‘A Song About Fishing’ just sound cluttered with those stilted melodies. There are still great moments here that make me return from this album, from the Punk-inflected tones of ‘Whip Cracker’, ‘Drown’, ‘Black Dogs!’, and ‘The Other Black Dog’ to an extent. The Neo-soul touches of ‘No Looking Back', ‘Waitin’ on Ya’, ‘Smiling with No Teeth’, and ‘Don’t Need You’. As well as the weirder funk touches of ‘Centrefold’ and ‘Bye Bye’ that are just irresistible.
This also points at the lyrics where it doesn’t seem to juxtapose the already disjointed feel of the album but emphasizes it with the concept that it’s trying to get its point across. Detailing about two black dogs with the first manifesting his depression and wrongdoings, and the second manifests the brute anger surrounding the racism that he faces. But even with the darker undertones, the lyrics do paint the fact that he does try to separate it away from him and be able to control its impulses, as well as having a sparkle of hope as he tries to become a better person in the end.
For a debut with enough cleverness and creative wonder, Genesis Owusu executes the blur of ideas and concepts in a colorful way that even if he’s still feeling his sound, he still succeeds at the end of it all. I’m curious where he will go next.
Favorite Tracks: Don’t Need You, Drown, Smiling with No Teeth, Whip Cracker, The Other Black Dog, No Looking Back, Bye Bye, Waitin’ on Ya, Centrefold, Black Dogs! Least favorite tracks: A Song About Fishing