Steve Lacy, the Grammy Award-winning neo-soul pop auteur, has returned with Oh yeah?, the undisputed follow-up to his 2022 opus, Gemini Rights. Where that album was a practice in complete pop maximalism, Oh yeah? feels much more subtle but still has some heavy-hitting features like SZA, Erykah Badu, and Montreal’s own Cecile Believe. It’s an album that moves quickly at a clip, touching on Gen Z love, affairs, trust, and Lacy’s own personal demons.
The titular opener tricks you into thinking it’s going to be a synthy ambient track and then morphs into a hazy neo-soul anthem, classic Lacy, who loves to genre-flip mid-song. The next track, « is it cool? » might be the most honest and straightforward Lacy has ever been in his lyricism—singing about self-sabotage and being unfaithful, opening the door for SZA’s enrapturing verses. Lacy’s signature high-octave guitar madness is mixed down in the track, something he did on a lot of Gemini Rights as well. After « the feeling, » appears with a funky bass riff and some light acoustic guitar. The vocal structure and synths bring to mind the recent work on Blood Orange’s Essex Honey, so it’s right up my alley. « pure colour (feat. Erykah Badu) » has a very laid-back trip hop vibe and has Badu sounding like some kind of creature. It’s an interesting choice, but kind of slows the whole album down a bit.
After « show you me, » a weird acoustic number, we get the grungy indie guitar-riffed « doom » which is easily the catchiest track of Oh yeah?, with Lacy’s nonchalant and somewhat vulgar lyrics about modern romance woes. Honestly, most songwriters who would have a verse like « I’m a big baby, suckin’ on big titties » would annoy me, but Lacy earns it. He then ends the song with an indietronic dirge, singing « blah blah blah, shut the fuck up. » I can easily see this being called and responded to at his shows. While Oh yeah? doesn’t have the immediate star power as Gemini Rights did right from jump street, it’s a great addition to the Lacy verse that I’ll be revisiting.
