The rising Mexican-American artist, Omar Apollo released his second album, Friends on April 10th, 2019. It includes 6 full length songs and 1 interlude making for 7 tracks in total.
The songs Ashamed and Kickback begin the album with prominent bass lines and a sound heavily inspired by R&B. These two are undoubtedly my favorites but I think I lean more towards Kickback. It’s quite the earworm and reminds me of, Needs by Verzache because of their similar bass lines and drum beats.
The lead single Friends opens with a beautiful acoustic guitar riff that continues over the course of the song. The lyrics tell a story of falling in love with a friend and not knowing if you are alone in that feeling. It’s a familiar story to many but the tender way that it’s sung adds depth to the simple text.
The interlude There for me is similar instrumentally to Friends but it changes slightly around the halfway mark. At the same time that a new guitar part emerges, the vocals become more raw and electric drums kick in which sound like something out of Troye Sivan’s Blue Neighborhood.
Hearing your voice, the next song on the album, is a lot like Friends as it’s almost exclusively acoustic guitar and powerful yet simple lyrics. The words communicate a loss and the feeling of missing someone which is made more meaningful by it’s vaguity. In contrast, So Good uses layered, upbeat vocals and synth to give a 70’s disco vibe not unlike Michael Jackson’s Rock With You. This song is a great example of Apollo striving to keep his audience guessing when it comes to his music. In an interview he said that being predictable is “his greatest fear as an artist.”
The final song, Trouble, is a combination of all of the sounds presented before it. An electric guitar plays a riff akin to the one in Friends and the drum beat and bass part are reminiscent of those in Ashamed. Two thirds of the way through, the electric guitar switches to acoustic and echoey vocals replace the crisper ones from earlier making it’s sound similar to the start of There for me. If you’re looking for more by Apollo, Ugotme is an incredible past single of his that I just adore.