a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Aloe Blacc—Lift your spirit

Products don’t always live up to their advertisements, but Aloe Blacc’s Lift Your Spirit holds true to its promise. Blacc’s innovative third album dips into multiple genres and realizes its promise of lifting listeners’ spirits through an upbeat mix of classic and novel sounds.

Tending towards simple and iconic subject matter, the tracks mainly focus on love, faith, and money, but ventures occasionally into political or existential territory, as “Ticking Bomb” does prominently. The album’s spirit never becomes downtrodden though, as Blacc explores all topics with the subtle emotion and grace that most will remember from his 2010 hit, “I Need a Dollar.”

The playful humour on Lift You Spirit’s most danceable tracks, “Can You Do This” and “The Man,” comes out on lines such as “I played my cards and I didn’t fold/Well it ain’t that hard when you got soul.” Interestingly, these tracks also show Blacc partake in hip hop’s conventional egotism, which he was previously stated he was “uncomfortable with” in a 2010 interview with the website HipHipDX. Perhaps he feels that his recent successes indeed warrant some measured bravado.

After all, the only blips on Lift Your Spirit are the country-infused “Here Today” and “Wake Me Up”—which Blacc originally performed vocals for on Avicii’s megahit—but Blacc’s luscious voice somewhat salvages even these. Considering Montreal’s brutal weather this March, it’s probably best for your spirit’s health and well-being to try a listen. You’ll get quality music, but more importantly, some of the advertised good vibes too.

Share this:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

*

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue