Ghost Polo drives with a genuinely thoughtful aura and a surprisingly heavy and artistic musicality on this latest release. While there are familiar elements to the track – the emo rap vibe, the melancholy mood – for the most part, it paves its own way; adhering to whatever the artist appears to be feeling in each instance.
The backdrop is a warming loop that appears as this fairly full soundscape – the beat has energy, but it’s not fast-paced. This array of synths seems to rain down throughout, pausing occasionally for impact. On top of this, a heavily auto-tuned and distorted leading voice gives the track an electronic-rock-meets-RnB vibe – even with this intense use of effects though, the reality of the emotion in the lyrics and the performance can’t be hidden.
You actually get a sense that the entire set-up of the release is intended to represent its underlying sentiments – this paranoia is overwhelming, and the soundscape and the performance work hard to explore that feeling and to let it connect with the listener. This is true to such an extent that the final moments see the track veer off in a completely unexpected direction. The paranoia reaches a peak – you witness the overthinking that leads us down these pathways of if I died, would you go to my funeral – then suddenly the music disappears almost entirely, and the track is later heard kicking back up in reverse.
Things come to an unsettling and ultimately very striking finish – one that makes you question your sound system a little. Again, there’s a purpose to this – Ghost Polo and Yasuu have considered every step of the creative process and utilized it so as to get that message across in as compelling a manner as possible, and it works. There’s a contemporary familiarity to it all, but there’s also plenty of depth and truth and personality. It’s an easy one to lose yourself within.
Find & follow GhostPolo on Instagram. Check out our interview with Ghost Polo here.
