New Music Friday is back, and this week, Steve Lacy's latest project, The Lo-Fis, is a must-listen. The 15-track album is made up of various — as the title suggests — lo-fi-esque, unreleased tracks that he wrote and produced throughout his high school years. Earlier this year, Lacy faced a near-death experience, making this album a highly anticipated one by fans.
Despite the album's backstory, the songs themselves sound wise beyond their years, considering each song is dated back to when he was a teenager. It's obvious that even in his youth, Lacy had cultivated a mature sound. One particularly interesting component to this album is that each song is, although introspective and personal, relatively short in timing — ideal for easy digestion, and perfectly fitting with the presumed attention span of a teen songwriter.
He kicks off the project with an upbeat, funky track, "Atomic Vomit." The, which lasts a minute and 30 seconds exactly, quickly transitions into a slower, more intimate vibe, with "When I" — a minute-long track that leaves listeners dying to hear more. The album's wide range of instruments, tempos, and lyricism is everything fans expected and more based off of Lacy's last project, Apollo XXI, his debut album from 2019.
Lacy's mellow, creative, and authentic take on R&B shines brightly on this project, like his last, and helps fans see how far he's come as an artist — a hopeful indication of what's to come from his future releases.
Tracklist
1. Atomic Vomit
2. When I
3. Thats No Fun
4. Cocky Girl
5. Uuuu
6. Jars of It
7. Bars. 16
8. Infrunami
9. Hummer
10. 4real
11. I Think I Should
12. Daze
13. Out of Me Head
14. Donchano
15. The Song