Last we saw Syd the Man, we were falling all over ourselves in 2011 to praise his debut album, Singin', Rappin' & Cussin'. A bit of it:
It is an emotional, markedly poignant, periodically poetic bundle of songs. A few spare parts feel loose and unnecessary, but they are relatively rare and easy to overlook. More often are moments of brilliance, deft and complicated musicianship made to sound entirely reflexive and preordained.
Finally, FINALLY, after more than a year of nothingness, he has released new music; a four-minute-long single that sees Syd the Man do what Syd The Man does best, namely: Wander around the crevices of his own brain, allowing the still very clear (and understandable) anguish caused by his mother's passing to be momentarily exorcised via his artfully bizarre falsetto voice.
Syd the Man's hurt is beyond existential; it seems to affect him on a cellular level. And while it is, most assuredly, the sourest of inspirations, it results in the purest, most admirable of art. You won't be swayed by the production (standard, second-tier stuff), and you won't be swayed by the video (merely a vehicle, truly), but you will immediately identify the authenticity, and a lot of times that's all you really need.
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