- Reggae-influenced post-punk with a sunny disposition and incisive lyrics.
- "Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born," George Bernard Shaw once wrote. Usually, hearing a songwriter draw inspiration from this re-lit flame results in moments of boundless beauty. So I Can See You, the first LP from Rhythm Section signee Basil Anthony Harewood, taps into this well of new life and subsequent change, written and recorded during (and after) the pregnancy and birth of his daughter. With a plethora of influences—post-punk, calypso, ska—shining through the LP's minimalist instrumentation and dreamlike ambience, So I Can See You is an impressive debut, painting the picture of a man in existential transit. He's caught between yearning for wholeness from the world around him while getting lost in his own.
So I Can See You is intensely personal, yet rarely overwrought—feelings are translated into song with almost no friction. In the album notes, Harewood recalls freestyling the title track, a collaboration with Coby Sey and the album's emotional core. On this track, Harewood lists the extreme measures he would take, the obstacles he would overcome, in order to see his newborn daughter. These range from fighting bears to accosting dolphins, and each line is delivered so matter-of-factly that you can almost envision him asking sea creatures for directions. His distinct vocal style (and his part-Caribbean, part-British upbringing) is always engaging, somewhere between Damon Albarn's croons and Toro Y Moi's falsetto.
Harewood's desires aren't always as clear-cut as on the title track, and at times he wrestles openly with his sense of self. Lines like "Gotta get my life right / see in plain sight," from the contemplative "Gotta Get My Life Right," or "Your feet in quicksand / Better make a move now" in the playful patois on "Move Now," intimately invite you into his high stakes internal monologue. The two tracks together are a study in contrasts—one overcast and borne of frustration, the other sunlit and encouraging—but they have the same premise: someone contemplating who they were and who they're going to have to be now they're responsible for another life.
Tender guitar riffs and a woozy ambiance permeate each track—from the loose, sun-kissed reggae on "Move Now" to the sinister inner-city undercurrent that runs through "From The North"—while electronics are used sparingly enough to make the record sound timeless and unpolished in an endearing way. One big departure from the album's sound is the gritty closing track "The State." Harewood delivers a scathing social commentary over a buzzing detuned bassline and a hair-raising ambiance, almost like a 2014-era Young Fathers' track. (No complaints there.) It's all a testament to the versatility TONE accomplishes with such minimal, mostly acoustic instrumentation.
It's rare for an artist to come out of the gates with such a magnetizing and fully-formed sound. Over the course of the record, you can hear TONE sparking reflection into action. He gradually begins to "see in plain sight," transitioning from feeling like there was "nothing inside" on the shoegazey punk of the album's opener, "Nice," to eventually teeming with love and tranquility on the serene, heaven-facing "Dawn." The album is laden with blues while brimming with optimism. In an age of rampant hypernormalization, So I Can See You addresses a collective desire for something real. It's a brooding debut that opts not to distract or run from but instead sit with the anxieties of the modern era with spellbinding results.