Album Review: BOYSLASHFRIEND - Low Key

Selling it short, Low Key and Boy/Friend or BOYSLASHFRIEND—however you want to say it—is like The Weeknd for people who are too cool for The Weeknd (namely me.)

90s influenced R&B has been having its moment for awhile now, and it finally peaked with The Weeknd’s latest effort, Beauty Behind The Madness, which debuted at number one on the Billboard top 200 album chart. If you would have told me the same guy who was putting out shadowy mixtapes in 2011 would be a pop sensation four years later, I would have laughed in your face.

Anyway, we all know how I feel about The Weeknd, and subsequently, how the internet feels about my feelings.

A healthy and entertaining alternative is the smooth R&B/pop inspired sounds of BOYSLASHFRIEND, who just dropped his second album, Low Key, on Friday—coming off of 2013’s Leather Weather, an album tied together by the idea of shorties in need of a leather jacket, samples from Boomerang and “Sex and The City.”

Last year, BOYSLASHFRIEND, aka Shan Poo, dropped adelightful single, “I Do That,” and I thought he was planning to capitalize off the momentum of such a gigantic single. But he didn’t. Save for a few other one off singles that arrived slightly around the same time, Poo has been relatively quiet until now, sliding in with a relatively low key release strategy for Low Key.

In perfectly capturing that 90s R&B/pop aesthetic, the first three tracks on Low Key are flawless, including the outstanding opening track, “Off That,” featuring production by his go to man MNTN, and the somber love letter “Maiden Lane & Broadway.” All three of these songs show Poo at his finest—both as a vocalist, as a songwriter, and as a performer, and “Maiden Lane” is hands down the best song on the record.

The album doesn’t exactly falter as it continues, but Poo definitely expands beyond the sound that he perfected practically right out of the gate back on Leather Weather.

One of expanded sounds is the tongue-in-cheek hip-hop influenced “Not Me, Not Now,” which boasts a Young Thug-esq hypeman following each line. It’s one of Poo’s most self-aware tracks, and on it, he keeps it light and raunchy, creating a refreshing reprieve to the rest of the smoothness of the album.

On other tracks (to varying levels of success) incorporate more synthesizer beeps and boops before righting himself before the album concludes—the fittingly titled slow jam “Slow Dance,” and the sparse, guitar accompanied title track.

While “I Do That” was a strong contender for a “top down, speakers up” kind of fun anthem, there is really nothing like that to be found on Low Key—even at its most fun moments, it is still a pretty serious, intensive R&B experience. As BOYSLASHFRIEND, Poo will probably not be topping the Billboard charts, and for my money, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I’d rather have him continue as an underground talent for the time being—a strong crooner (he’s got one hell of smooth, gorgeous voice) and he’s got a voice and a vision that continue to grow with each subsequent effort.

Low Key is out now digitally via Feel Up Records.