The Unapologetic collective champions virtues that aren’t often associated with hip hop: vulnerability, fragility, and even self-doubt. Such qualities crop up in even their hardest jams, but they’re front and center, distilled into their essence, on the new long-playing debut from the group’s go-to guitarist, Aaron James.
At first, Nobody Really Makes Love Anymore hits the ears as a complete departure from Unapologetic’s typical fare. The first of three spoken vignettes gives way to snippets of backwards synth and falsetto, reminiscent of Magical Mystery Tour, until gentle guitar strums set the pace for James’ quiet vocals.
Dear love, above / Your moon don’t align with my rising sun / And I heard that’s not good for relations / You said, you’d send / A strand of your hair in a letter you penned / But instead, you sent just the pages.
With a hushed delivery reminiscent of Elliott Smith or Sufjan Stevens, these words and tones take the listener to a very interior place, where one goes to recall half-forgotten dreams. But while James’ voice has always delivered vulnerability with a confident strength, going back to his first single six years ago, the production here savors the space between his breaths as much as the music itself. Indeed, this album may be the most painterly music from the collective since the sparest moments from Cameron Bethany’s work. Though James can pick cascading guitar ostinatos like a folk pro, he sometimes chooses a sparser approach here, as acoustic guitar notes hang in the air and breathe.
The 13-track album (including three conversational interludes) was recorded with a team of three producers and multi-instrumentalists, featuring James himself, co-producer Kid Maestro (Miss Lauryn Hill), and keyboard/piano/harmony vocalist Eillo. Together, they create a soundscape rich in acoustic beauty, yet undergirded with a deft sense of beats, synth flourishes, and even vocoder.
Kid Maestro, of course, is familiar to Unapologetic fans from his harder-hitting work with rappers, but he pivots here to more delicate percussion and a subtle sense of atmospherics. And Eillo is a secret weapon worth celebrating in his own right, bringing accomplished pianistic and vocal flourishes that decorate these songs like ear candy.
But if this album sports some of the most accomplished production in the Unapologetic catalog (and that’s saying something), there’s a rawness at the heart of it. That’s partly due to its emergence from the pandemic. The album is yet another Covid baby, produced in ad hoc studio settings, including a shed, as the trio soldiered through the height of quarantine while practicing responsible social distancing. As James notes in a statement, “It was a great exercise in capturing the DIY vibe of the time and just not taking things too seriously. I also hope the rawness translates and helps make this dialogue on love feel more honest as opposed to something that was way over produced.”
And truly, it’s the raw honesty that shines through here, as when James confesses in “The Breaker” that he wants to flip the script, and “treat you cold and jaded, with no explanation.” Ouch. It may be that nobody is making love, but James and company manifest it with a heartfelt question mark.
Aaron James will celebrate the album’s release tonight, Friday, November 11, 7:30 p.m., in a private house show at 579 N. McLean Boulevard. Free, but reservations are encouraged due to limited space.