Crush

Let me just get something out of the way. I got a song and a half into Crush’s latest album and was on the verge of tears. The last time this happened I was at uni. I’d just heard Jeff Buckley for the first time. After getting over the injustice of him having passed away before I discovered him, listening to Grace ripped something in me that’s never been repaired. Dammit, if Crush didn’t widen the crag with From Midnight to Sunrise.

At Sunrise

From the opening notes of the album, I’m an emotional wreck. This man really decided he needed to remind us all just who the hell he is. What did I say about “NAPPA”? When he’s in the mood for a flex, we should all watch out because it’s going to be extravagant!

“From Midnight to Sunrise” is an awakening. Dawn breaks on the hushed sigh of a cymbal brush. What better way to usher in the new day than with a song that’s the aural manifestation? The track is traditional, unfettered jazz. Coltrane and Miles. Perhaps for a more contemporary comparison, Clara Hill’s rendition of Jazzanova’s “That Night.” Moody, sensual, a tease to what happens next. And what happens next (and beyond) is absolute magic.

Sunrise of the New Dawn

“Wake Up”… Okay. Without putting too fine a point on it, I want to kiss Crush’s feet for bringing DEAN back to me. Yes, his best friend has been making and releasing music for the past couple years, albeit sparingly. But if you’ll remember my thoughts of his acoustic rendition of “Howlin’ 404,” throughout his career as a solo artist, he’s had moments where he’s seemed lost. He’s been working ever since the release of his debut EP to exorcise that self-doubt. When he released “Howlin’s…” acoustic fraternal twin, it was like a reawakening.

Now we come to From Midnight to Sunrise. There’s new life in DEAN that’s been in wax and wane for the better part of two years. His voice next to Crush’s composition is a marvel.

“Wake Up” is simple in general construction. However, the harmony work, the subtle strings throughout and the flutter of those same bode instruments at the song’s harmonic climax is a work of pure, unadulterated art. The added smoky dimensions of DEAN’s voice settling next to Crush’s is a revelation. (In case you’re wondering: Yes. DEAN’s still howling.) The pair work in perfect synch with each other. They’re both known for elaborate harmony schemes. Placing them on top of and next to each other adds a layer of complexity to a track that’s otherwise a soft sigh. A light breeze riding the mist of early morning.

The two drip into the listener’s consciousness like the first shy rays of morning. When the song reaches its apex, the sun crashes into dawn, bringing the full flourishes of the day with it. It’s a brilliantly constructed piece of music that reintroduces the world to just how musically intelligent Crush and DEAN are.

In Perfect Harmony

To follow “Wake Up” with a Take 6-inspired interlude featuring his Band Wonderlust is such an aggressive play. It’s as if he’s attempting to overload the listener’s senses. Force his way into the psyche. Crush sprinkles bits of this vocal layering throughout the album. Track “Alone” is reminiscent of some of the intricate vocal weaving of Boyz II Men and, yes, Take 6. In fact, the sparse composition has shades of Boyz II Men Christmas ballad “Who Would Have Thought.” From the tinkling piano backdrop, indicative of so many holiday songs, to the harmonic opening and break right before the final chorus.

This, of course, extends to the more pop-heavy “Tiki-Taka.” A fine balance of sweeping strings and piano to open us up much like the slow ease of morning into afternoon. Despite having a more traditionally “pop” construction, the addition of the strings gives the track more dimension. The miracle of the harmonies during the pre-chorus elevates the song, giving it unexpected depth. He’s played with this dance between classic and contemporary with his debut LP, Crush on You. Song “Whatever You Do” also made use of strings and vocal layering to give a playful song agency. The addition of DPR Live hearkens back more viscerally to Crush’s first full body of work, the rapper’s cadence and placement almost identical to GRAY’s.

Parallelism

It brings to light another aspect of the album that Crush subtly sneaks in here. The notion of parallelism. The album title and the way the album is constructed. Making very distinct nods to his five-year-old debut. The fact that Zion.T helped produce both “Wake Up” and “Nighty Night.” (More on “Nighty Night” later.) The liberal use of vocal and instrumental layering. The harmony work on this album is interstellar. Truly something from the heavens. The care Crush took with composition this time around is… Impressive doesn’t do it justice. Each layer of harmony tightly wound around each other, pitch-perfect. A marvel of musical symmetry–perfect sounds meshing perfectly without crack or flaw.

“Sunset” is one of the most stunning pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Period. In this day and age, it seems people have honestly forgotten what it means to make music. No, this isn’t an indictment of the quality of other artists. Nor does this suggest people don’t make “real” music anymore. What I’m saying is people forget that music is art. That it’s as much expression, commerce, and freedom as it is an honest-to-goodness artform.

With From Midnight to Sunrise, Crush reintroduces the notion of making something beautiful for the sake of beauty. To make music dramatic, self-indulgent, cinematic. Utterly gorgeous just because it’s there to be. “Sunset” absolutely unfolds the “muse” in “music.” Methinks the young master has been listening to Lewis Taylor’s Lost Album, or more likely Brian Wilson. It’s like the vocal work of “In My Room” and the instrumental jubilee of Frank Ocean’s “Pretty Sweet” had a one-night stand. The layering on “Sunset” induces the most peculiar combination of full-body chills and internal warmth.

Memories of Childhood

He’s certainly been busy studying the greats of late-’80s/early-’90s R&B: Peabo Bryson, Anita Baker, perhaps a bit of TROOP or Mint Condition for good measure. Tracks “With You” and “Butterfly” indicate he’s been diving headfirst into much of the musical canon of my childhood. Pulling tighter on the red strings between jazz and R&B he’s been exploring since (at least) 2016’s Interlude. (If you stretch your ear just a bit, you could say “Butterfly” is just a slower, more sensual rendition of Jamiroquai’s song of the same name.)

In fact, he gets on a kick of unwrapping the versatility of R&B in the ’90s with first “Butterfly,” then “Ibiza.” The latter’s obvious nod to New Jack Swing is something we haven’t heard Crush really play around with in earnest for a while. Not since his debut album, with track “Hey Baby” where he explored New Edition graduates Bobby Brown and Johnny Gill. “Ibiza” takes it a step further, adding the dimension of Midwest house. A genre that Europe adopted and watered down. He does this elegantly, with respect to the historical significance of the subgenres. This is Crush, after all. If he’s going to try his hand at a thing, he’s going to drink from the source, not the bottled-water dilution.

Saints and Sinners

The brilliance of “Cloth” lies in Crush’s ability to use double entendre. The skill has extended to a song’s entire concept. The notion of “cloth” has both religious and sensual connotations. We begin with the song’s foundation. The shrill warble of a church organ against the throbbing backdrop of an 808 (a sound most associated with R&B). He deliberately crosses the line between the holy and the profane. Being “of the cloth,” a person dedicated to a life of religious piety. “Cloth” also is quite literally of the flesh (to cover and caress). It’s both a symbol of innocence and sin. Crush proclaiming he wants to be “close to you,” like cloth, like a second skin. Like a man of the cloth yearning to be closer to whatever God he’s dedicated himself to.

While lyrically From Midnight to Sunrise has some of the most profound poetry of Crush’s discography, “Cloth” stands apart. The song’s lyrical landscape reads like the final hours of Jesus Christ himself. A man, indicted for his existence, is hung on the cross. Crush envisions himself a martyr. Splayed for a public whose interest peaks and falls with shifting trends.

It’s almost Shakespearean, his entreaty that someone (a loved one? a ravenous crowd?) never abandon him. “In a place where there’s no sunlight Dear, don’t abandon me Just don’t throw me away.” (“O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, who monthly changes in her circled orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.” Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2)

Midnight to Sunrise

Follow that with the blues-tinged ache and croon of “Sleep No More.” The single guitar, a fuzz-wah filter acting as the perfect foil to Crush himself. The scratchy, throaty croon of the instrument against the smooth lightness of Crush’s voice and the silken harmonies that follow.

With the album’s closing track, the aptly titled “Nighty Night,” Crush gives us more of that dual imagery. While he woke us up with the smoky denseness of DEAN’s voice, the night ends on the ebullience of another longtime friend of Crush’s: Zion.T. Where DEAN’s voice holds a remnant of sleep, Zion.T’s tone embodies the waning excitement of the day as it folds into night. The bounce and broken cadence of his delivery does splendid things when intertwined with Crush’s. Zion.T’s playfulness coaxing the listener close, while Crush’s sincerity entices them to bed. In between sleeping and waking, we’re wrapped once again in twilight.

A Brilliant Sunrise

Crush is such a smart musician. He doesn’t really get the credit he deserves for the cerebral way he approaches his music. Something as simple as the album’s title and song order. The album walks itself backward (or forward, depending on how deep into your interpretation you want to get) from the pre-dawn of sunrise to the sin and mystery of midnight. Such that once the album begins again, you’re in the heat of night’s kiss on your skin. Sensual and promising, once the trumpet makes an appearance, the heat of the moment begins to wane and listeners are greeted with the shy blush of the next morning. Simple, yet so incredibly smart.

It’s imperative you listen to From Midnight to Sunrise more than once, if only to get the full scope of the album’s conceit. By the time Crush and Zion.T have said goodnight, the listener has been seduced out of and back to sleep just as the sun yawns into the morning once again. Crush has gifted us a true masterpiece.

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