Clear: The Series

2021年にリリースされた2ndアルバム『Still Over It』が全米1を飾る大ヒットとなった、LVRN(ラヴ・ルネッサンス)レーベル所属のR&Bシンガー、Summer WalkerのCLEARシリーズのEPをコンパイルしたアイテム。

Whereas Clear was a four-track EP released only three months after Over It, this sequel is over twice the length of the original and was issued with Summer Walkers third album around the corner. Like the 2019 EP, this one is based on live instrumentation with Walker similarly at her rawest lyrically and vocally, unbothered by commercial reception. That approach plays to her strengths as a perceptive and pensive writer whose voice should never be obscured. When she is backed by more than a plaintive guitar, nothing gets in her way, and yet its all stimulating -- the drums a little too nuanced to qualify as basic time-keeping, the basslines melodic and unobtrusive, the keyboards gently touched. Two of Walkers most quietly powerful songs are among the highlights. Setting the mood of the EP is the bleary if resolute "Hardlife," where she castigates an ineffectual ex while singing in support of all Black women not getting what they need from their men. "Agayus Revelation," a collaboration with Solange, John Carroll Kirby, and Steve Lacy, comes off like an informal monologue but has as much to offer as any of Walkers richest songs. Not all is deeply serious -- "New Type" with Childish Gambino is a quarrelsome duet full of spite and wit. ~ Andy Kellman

恋愛で負った傷を曝け出し、それを燃料にして歌うサマー・ウォーカー。一方で、そんな私生活の苦悩から逃れて心の平穏を取り戻すセルフ・ヒーリング的なEPもリリース。それが先頃配信した『Clear 2: Soft Life』で、そこに4年前の前編『Clear』収録曲を加えたアルバム尺のCDが登場した。ざっくり言うとネオ・ソウル的なアプローチで、J・コールが語る〈音声ハグ〉から癒される続編には、ウォーカーの出産立ち会い人を務めたエリカ・バドゥの影響が色濃く滲む。チャイルディッシュ・ガンビーノ客演曲やソランジュやスティーヴ・レイシーらが手掛けたモノローグも含め、全編に気怠いメロウネスが充満する妖美な快作だ。
bounce (C)林 剛