IN LOVING MEMORY - Sean Leon
The Toronto-native's newest release is a beautifully formless aura of bending colours and sonic waves with a galactic grandness
Toronto-native Sean Leon has never strayed from daring to explore new sounds; he’s constantly creating some of the most captivating atmospheres in his field. His newest album, IN LOVING MEMORY, is no exception. Across the work, Leon becomes difficult to pin-down, bridging touches of R&B, electronic, soul, classic rock, and hip-hop in the form of a constantly morphing aura. It’s a record that resists strict form and instead organically oozes in 3 dimensions, enveloping listeners in a formless atmosphere of energies.
To put it most aptly, IN LOVING MEMORY truly feels like floating in space. Perhaps it’s an intrusion of the title of the first full-length track, “GRAVITY”, that lays the groundwork for this thought space, but it can also be sonically felt. Keys twinkle brilliantly and move around the soundscape to conjure imagery of distant stars and the angelic backing vocals accentuate Leon’s own like disembodied voices simultaneously existing everywhere and nowhere.
Floatiness, as “GRAVITY” exemplifies, is the most common stylistic element that permeates throughout the tracklist. Extremely strong production gives way to constantly moving elements of reverbed guitar strikes, horns, and a plethora of vocals to develop a feeling of not knowing “which way is up”. This constantly changing spatiality is emphasized on “AQUARIUS”, which sees Leon manipulate the space around the listener through moving his vocals all around to simulate a gently spinning, ungrounded atmosphere akin to zero-gravity floatation. The insanely soothing guitar strumming that fills the backdrop cannot be overstated either, and is just one example of an incredible tenderness displayed throughout the release.
While Leon may not have the vocal prowess of other major contemporary R&B stars, he more than makes up for it through how he utilizes vocals in the composition of tracks such as this. Both through modification and placement, they exist not as the sole central focus, but more fittingly as a band of colour across the spectrum of these tracks. “KINGSLEY’S OUTRO” is another stand-out in this regard, as Leon utilizes masterful vocal layering that continues to evolve throughout the song to explore a variety of textures applied to it. Once again, he resists any central grounding and, as a result, delightfully gives a performance that remains powerfully dynamic.
IN LOVING MEMORY’s production, overall, is a truly triumphant spectacle. The combined effort of talented producers and engineers shine through clearly, contributing majorly to crafting the atmosphere of the record that often achieves maximalism without approaching an aura of overbearing. Notably, there are several tracks that feel the presence of Leon’s regular-collaborator Ye, one such being “ALIVE”. He’s also directly involved with the tracklist through “THE GLADE”, a reworked version of “Up From the Ashes” that features Daniel Caesar and which Leon makes completely his own. “OXYGEN” is also a cut from the sort-of released DONDA 2 that was originally titled “Sci-Fi”. As one of that album’s most beautifully devastating sounding songs, utilizing a collection of heart-breaking violins, it’s a fantastic addition to IN LOVING MEMORY that feels right at home. It also retains one of the funniest Ye lines of recent release through a Morgan Freeman reference, so that’s great.
Many of the songs, as well as the overall record itself, can aptly be described as fading thoughts; constantly moving and trailing off without ever reaching any conclusions. The atmosphere of these endless forms are certainly intriguing on an individual basis but taken as a whole it serves to be a detriment to the overall work. As this trend continues to persist throughout the tracklist, songs near the album’s end feel at least somewhat frustrating in their refusal to reach any point of even approximate destination. There’s no doubt about their enjoyability, but the overarching musical journey feels to simply fade away in every direction and, resultantly, ends feeling inconclusive and uncertain. Many of the tracks also oddly feel somewhat even though they seem like they should be incredibly cohesive. While individual tracks melt and morph seamlessly within themselves, it sticks out harshly that, for whatever reason, they don’t do so between each other. Instead, transitions can be somewhat jolting and disrupt the organic flow that each track persists.
Frustrations over conclusively or cohesiveness, though, definitely feel like small criticisms in comparison to the scale at which IN LOVING MEMORY is working at. The sheer formlessness that is musically expressed is nothing short of incredible and exemplifies an excellent amount of artistry from Sean Leon. It’s at times beautiful, at times magical, and often even tear-jerking. Immaculate atmospheres of directionless floating in space amongst solar rays, blinking stars, contemplative twilight, and therapeutic isolation is infused so organically into the formation of the album that it relentlessly inspires wonder within the listener. Despite squeezing in right in the final month of 2023, don’t count Sean Leon out of the discussion for one the best albums of the year.