After listening to Keshi’s new album, “Requiem”, I can firmly say that it is an excellent contender for my album of the year. This album had to be one of the few albums I can say I listen to regularly and don’t skip any of the songs on it. From the more relaxed and calm beat and instrumental from “Say” to the more melancholy and soft piano mixed with electric guitar in “Bodies”, this album has a lot of different genres of music blended into one album and it works so well for him. His production on the album was also made and perfected for this album. Now I will admit, that some of the songs are not as good as the others but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t good, they are honestly great songs.
If I had to pick at least 5 songs from this album that were my personal favorites, they would have to be “Amen”, “Soft Spot”, “Bodies”, “Id”, and “Kiss Me Right”. I chose these tracks because they stick out a lot, especially with the production and vocals.
“Amen” is my first pick mainly because for the first song on the album, it excited me to listen to the rest of the album because it was so good. From the synths to the lyrics to the overall way the song sounded, I thought this was the best way to introduce the album.
“Soft Spot” is the 4th track on this album and I like it because of how well the production and lyrics work together. All of the production on this track is amazing. I have had this song on replay quite a bit and it has made its way into some of my playlists. Keshis voice and the way he sang the track were perfect as they worked well with the instrumental.
“Bodies” is the 9th track on the album and in my opinion, it is the best one hands down. Keshi put so much emotion into his vocals and just truly went above and beyond when making this track. The emotions are captured even more with the soft piano and then the electric guitar in the chorus of the song.
“Id” is the “last” song on the album before the bonus edition released with “Kiss Me Right”. I will say at first this track didn’t captivate me as much as the other songs on this record but after relistening to the album over and over, I’ve learned to appreciate this track and I found it very intriguing that the song loops in a way by reusing some of the lyrics from Amen and putting a twist on it by making it sound like the end of an album instead of the beginning and it was honestly really cool to see.
“Kiss Me Right” is the final song on the bonus edition of the album and it has slowly turned into one of my favorites after it was teased in a concert over 2 years ago. Again, I felt the same way about this song as I did with “Id” but after some time, it started to grow on me and become one of my favorite tracks on this record. The instruments and overall production are way different than the rest of the songs on this album but it works perfectly.
Overall, this competes with some of my top picks for album of the year, and excellent reasons. If you like an album that shows a lot of emotion and just overall has a nice sound, I recommend this record. I feel like you will truly appreciate the variety of this album. Whether it is the instruments, lyrics, or production, you are bound to find something that you will enjoy.
