Candid
Ivy Sole
2022
Ivy Sole returns with their third album, Candid, which also happens to be their third hip hop concept album too. Candid is Ivy Sole at their most, well, candid, and the album is a testament to the power of telling the truth. It questions what we believe about relationships between ourselves and our loved ones.
The Candid project is a narrative triptych, i.e. presented in three, separate and distinct parts that create the whole. Speaking on the natural divisions of Candid, Sole explained, “‘Easy to Kill’ acts as a thesis statement.
“Tracks 2-5 contain my parents’ stories – of needing alibis and the lifesaving interventions that words can provide (‘Call Me’), the warnings their parents gave them about love and other drugs (‘Dangerous’), and the loneliness and longing for one another that inevitably follows incarceration (‘The Ways’ + ‘One More Night’).
Tracks 6-9 are my stories – the uneasy ocean of loving someone who seems ashamed of you (‘Bamboo’), the pressure of expectations and the subsequent freedom you feel when released from them (‘Chico’), a love song for language (‘Talk That Talk’), and a bitter ending (‘Nights Like This’).
The final stretch of the album combines climax and denouement – it resolves some of what the central question presented in the album’s intro. “Mama, why you make me easy to kill?” gets several answers – ‘Reincarnate’ says, “I already lost two of my children, you are here because they couldn’t be.” ‘What You Deserve’ says, “You’re capable of love and you deserve it in equal measure to what you give.” ‘Runaway’ says, “We are your parents but you write your own destiny.” And ‘Otherside’ is me stating my intention to get redress for the harms committed against my family by the state.” (credit: Earmilk)
Stand-out tracks:
Easy to Kill
One More Night
Bamboo
Talk That Talk
