Album Review: GABRIEL by Keshi
The impressive debut album from singer-songwriter, Keshi.
GABRIEL is an effortless progression towards R&B for alt-pop Texas-native Keshi. Originally posting his music on Soundcloud, and eventually blowing up with his 2018 single, “2 soon”, Keshi always manages to impress with his self-produced music. He credits The 1975 and Bryson Tiller (two of my favorite artists) as some of his inspirations. While his older EPs, such as The Reaper and Skeletons are acoustic pop, GABRIEL is a departure from his previous sound and demonstrates how good of a producer Keshi really is.
My personal favorites from this album are “ANGOSTURA” and “ANGEL”. First of all, I am obsessed with the Angostura music video. While Keshi’s old music videos were more basic and mostly just him performing (nevertheless very charming), his music videos for this new era have seen such an improvement in production quality. This and the “GET IT” video are both very visually stunning and will blow your mind if you’re familiar with Keshi’s old projects. As a song, Angostura is a very sultry track as Keshi sings, “I just want a lover for the whole night”. The beginning of the song is very chill as he plays acoustic guitar, but once the chorus kicks in, things get crazy. The chorus is very catchy and groovy, showing his new influences of synth-pop and R&B.
In contrast, “ANGEL” is a much more laid back track. Keshi sings of a lover (the angel) who keeps hurting him after he lets them in ‘again and again’, as part of an unhealthy cycle. In the second verse, Keshi sings “You’re treading at the shore, I bet you’ve never drowned before in someone that you’d do it for”, as he bids the lover farewell for the presumably, final time. The songwriting on this track genuinely gave me shivers and captured the essence of a toxic relationship very well. The song starts off as a soft, piano ballad, but as the first chorus starts, electric guitar and heavier drums are introduced. The second verse also includes tinges of acoustic guitar that are reminiscent of John Mayer (another one of Keshi’s inspirations). The production and lyrics go so well together and feel cathartic as the cycle of a once-beautiful, toxic relationship is broken.
I always find Keshi’s ability to write songs like the ones above so fascinating, as he is currently engaged to his childhood best friend. He has said before that he gets songwriting inspiration from being the therapist friend. Being able to write beautiful songs about others’ experiences is such a unique talent that I think goes largely unnoticed by many.
A special mention has to be the seventh track, “HELL/HEAVEN”. In an interview with Fuse, Keshi said that this song is his favorite of his and unlike anything he’s ever made before. On this track, Keshi sings about turning to his lover during a crisis. The crisis in question seems to be navigating the pitfalls of fame and success. Similar to other songs on the album, the beginning of the song is somewhat lo-fi and acoustic, but explodes as the song progresses. Him singing ‘I adore you’ is turned into this sample that’s chopped up and thrown into the background, creating the haunting atmosphere of the chorus. This song takes you into Keshi’s own little world and epitomizes the album.
Overall, GABRIEL is a decent debut album and is very cohesive and well-produced. I feel that the main flaw of this album is that some of the songs sound a bit too similar or have the same concepts. While I prefer Keshi’s older music slightly more, I still thoroughly enjoyed this release and am immensely proud of the evolution of his sound.
