FEATURE: Spotlight: Chloe x Halle — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Chloe x Halle

___________

FOR this week’s Spotlight…

I am focusing on a duo who might not be that well known in the U.K. but are popular in the U.S. I first discovered Chloe x Halle when they released their debut album, The Kids Are Alight, in 2018. Chloe and Halle Bailey hail from Atlanta, Georgia, and their debut received huge reviews and was one of the most acclaimed albums of that year. I am going to bring in a couple of reviews and interviews from this year but, looking back, and the sisters have come a long way. I think their latest album, Ungodly Hour, is slicker and more accomplished than their debut, but they are both in their early-twenties and have accomplished a huge amount in such a short time! Their new album will surely rank alongside the best of the year when people start putting out their lists very soon. If you have not heard their amazing music then I would recommend that you do so. Their vocals are beautiful and sumptuous and they co-write their music - which is impressive to see in such a young act. They are actors too, so I think the sisters bring some of that craft and disciple to the plate. I like the fact that Chloe x Halle do not really share the vocals with anyone on Ungodly Hour. There are a few collaborators on production duties but the sisters’ vocals are the main focus. Most artists bring in other big artists on their songs and I think that does dilute the music to an extent.

Ungodly Hour is one of the richest and most accomplished albums of 2020, and it is no surprise that it has received so much acclaim. In their review, this is what AllMusic said:

“The harmonizing Bailey sisters took their time -- three years -- in making their first true album. The deliberation paid off when The Kids Are Alright crossed into the Top 20 of Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart and was singled out with Grammy nominations for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best New Artist. Their 2020 follow-up might seem rushed in comparison, and its assembly of high-profile producers -- Chloe was the primary producer on the debut -- suggests a conscious attempt to throw their commercial prospects into overdrive. While it evidently came together quicker and was shaped more by outsiders like Sounwave and Jake One, Scott Storch, Disclosure, Mike WiLL Made-It, and Boi-1da, the Baileys' second album is really a refinement of and progression from The Kids Are Alright. Its pop-R&B foundation is a little slicker, still tricked out with the occasional trap-styled production techniques -- probing bass, rattling percussion -- twisted just enough to not sound overdone. The Baileys are unsurprisingly able to adapt to chic throwback soul flavorings and acoustic pop, while on the title track, they slip and slide with finesse over Disclosure's smoothed-out U.K. garage, punctuating it with an impossibly elegant chorus. Sisterhood on nuclear and communal levels is promoted to an unflagging extent by the women, who come across as eager superheroes without a weakness, unless feeling "Overwhelmed" counts, and they might be capable of paralyzing with a single roll of the eyes. They'll catch and reprimand any guy who acts out of line and will make him regret it. The fun peaks on "Tipsy": "I'll hit you where it hurts/If you don't put me first”.

I have been listening to a lot of the album over the past few days and I keep coming back to various songs. I love the way they can combine their vocals seamlessly but retain their individual character. In their positive review. The Line of Best Fit observed the following:

“Whilst their previous record consolidated upon the breezy, summery aesthetics of forebearers such as En Vogue and TLC, the duo’s latest project adopts a different tack, fusing progressive hip-hop soul with moody, late-night rhythm and blues. The end-result is nothing short of a contemporary classic, a document of musical prowess playing in real time. Despite their relative youth, Ungodly Hour is a timely reminder that Chloe and Halle are built for this moment in R&B music.

Take, for example, the angsty “Don’t Make It Harder On Me”, which sounds like a deep-cut by The Supremes turned on its head: “Don’t make it harder on me. / Don’t make it harder on me / I told you not to love me / And now you’re growing on me”. Channelling late '60s doo-wop and contemporary urban pop, the song is as much a kiss-off as it is an unabashed love-song, with the duo sounding off on the ramifications of a potential romance against an edgy, orchestral backdrop. Make no mistake though, the sisterhood draw power from their previous heartaches, crafting anthems across the rest of the album that speak to their self-confidence, such as the empowering “Do It” (“I’m just with the crew / We ain’t out here lookin’ for boo / ‘Cause some nights be better with you…”) and the playful “Forgive Me” (“Movin’ too fast, now you caught in the middle / Try so hard to keep up, now you single / Bettin’ you’ll regret what you did just a little / Ah, ah”).

Elsewhere, the duo channel early-nineties Sade on the jazzy “Busy Boy” before trading off kisses with Swae Lee on the Mike WiLL Made-It-produced “Catch Up”, concluding this one-two punch with the confessional “Overwhelmed”, which sees Chloe and Halle ruminate on the pressures of their newly-found stardom: “Holdin’ my breath ‘til my face turns blue / Head under water / Breathe deeply, they said / I need a weekend again”. At odds with the otherwise up-tempo sound of the record, this moment of vulnerability speaks to the strength drawn by the duo in their togetherness – a theme that emerges most prominently on the album’s title track: “When you decide to love yourself / When you decide you need someone / When you don’t have to think about it / Love me at the ungodly hour”. Acting as both sultry invitation and empowered self-confession, the song is a clarion call for all those who deign to diminish the duo’s talents – talents that blaze through on Ungodly Hour with a full and unrelenting force”.

I would recommend people to go and listen to Chloe x Halle’s previous mixtape and E.P.s, but especially go and listen to The Kids Are Alright, and Ungodly Hour and see how they have progressed in a short period of time. Their latest album was delayed in support of Black Lives matter. I want to introduce an interview in GQ where they were asked about this:

“There's been so much going on this year, from coronavirus to Black Lives Matter. What has it been like releasing Ungodly Hour against that backdrop?

C: It's been interesting, but we're so grateful that, through this chaotic time, we can still try to find the beauty in it. I hope that that's what we did with our album, that we brought some light into people's lives. I feel like everything happens for a reason and this truly is the “ungodly hour”. In an odd way, the time when we put it out, it's exactly when it was supposed to come.

H: Normally when we release an album or a project, we do the press tour in New York, then we go back home and do the press tour in LA. Then we normally travel all over and go to all the radio stations and do interviews there. Doing it from home has been interesting, but it's been really positive actually too. It's amazing what you can do from home, with the performances and interviews. It's wild. Maybe we've never even needed to actually meet up and stuff. We can just do it through our computer.

You have also always had so much creative control over your work. Entering the industry at such a young age, was it ever a struggle for you to get that freedom?

H: What I think we got really lucky and blessed with is our parents, who have always instilled in us that we can do anything we put our minds to. We've always had a hand in our creativity because we feel like it's our story to tell. We write and produce everything that we touch, because it's so important. I feel like that's never been something that we've had to fight for, because we've just been like, “No, this is it. This is what we're doing.” When we were ten and eight years old, our dad sat us down and taught us the basics of how to write a song. Just knowing that we have the power within has been a theme and lesson that our parents have always instilled in our brains. Collaboration has also always been exciting and interesting for us, because we're used to working with one another. That's our safe space. With my sister, I can be truthful and honest. When you're working with somebody new, you're scared to step on their toes. That's why creativity for us has always been like, “Yes, we're going to do it.”

How does it feel looking back at how far you've come?

C: I think because we're in it, we don't really realise how fast everything happens. About a year and a half ago, our team made a reel that was around ten minutes long, showing all the things we've done. I was like, “Whoa!” It was pretty cool looking from the outside and stepping away from it for a minute. We're just two girls who really love to make music and to be able to have a career where we could do this and make money from it, it's literally a dream come true. This isn't overnight for us, we've been doing this since we were five and seven years old. We've always known that our dreams will come true, we just never knew how and when. To actually see it happen before our eyes is such an overwhelming feeling and we are filled with immense gratitude. I just hope that we can continue to grow and next year look back and be like, “Whoa, this happened too!”

It is interesting to read interviews with Chloe x Balle, as they have had such an interesting past in terms of their music and acting. They are definitely one of the most promising acts around, and I think their profile is growing in Britain. Interviews like the afore-quoted GQ one will bring them to new people.

Before I conclude, I want to bring in a great interview from The Guardian published back in September.

“Whereas their debut album, The Kids Are Alright, focused on the agony and ecstasy of mid-adolescence, Ungodly Hour sees the pair sift through their love lives, calling out cheaters, playboys and prolific booty-callers. But it’s not simply good girls versus bad boys; the album is suffused with a compelling moral ambiguity. Wonder What She Thinks of Me is told from the perspective of the “other woman”, while on the darkly comic Tipsy, the pair fantasise about murdering flaky love interests. (“It is such a shame that they went missing, they can’t find ’em now / Oh, I wonder how I accidentally put them in the ground.”) “We were pissed off writing that song!” insists Halle. “Sometimes when people mess with your heart, you’re like: ‘Dude I gotta do something about it.’” Chloe is keen to clarify that “we never would kill somebody. But I feel like if everything’s so general, the song gets boring.”

The sisters’ songs have also provided comfort in unforeseen ways. The pair postponed the release of Ungodly Hour out of respect for the Black Lives Matter protests – “We couldn’t make this about us” – but didn’t want to delay it for too long. “Music is a healer, and with all this going on even I need a distraction from the world or I’m going to drive myself crazy,” says Chloe.

It is a relatively recent development, but speaking up about injustice is now a prerequisite of pop stardom. Yet Chloe and Halle view their political activism not as an element of their career – let alone their celebrity image – but as an inherent part of their own existence. “The reality is it’s our life: we live a life of being black women and we feel it’s our duty to use this platform we were given,” says Halle. The pair are particularly intent on encouraging their fans to vote. “Our ancestors fought for this right, and got it taken away from them so many times: they would get tested and quizzed, the rules would be bent. So, now we have the chance to say what we want to say, we must use that to honour them,” she continues. Chloe is less equivocal: “If all of us get out and vote, that man won’t be in the office any more”.

Go and follow the sensational Chloe x Halle and listen to their fantastic music! I think they are going to have a very interesting career and they are going to inspire a lot of artists coming through at the moment. I love their blend of Pop and R&B and, whilst many might think their demographic is girls and female teens, I think their music is broad and compelling enough to resonate with pretty much anyone! They are an amazing prospect and I am excited to see were they will go and how big they can be. From their earliest work through to supporting Beyoncé on The Formation World Tour in 2016, to their first two albums, the stunning Chloe x Halle have barely…