new music: electronic psychedelic soul singer/songwriter sassyblack thinks about love on ‘no more weak dates’

But the thing about ‘No More Weak Dates’ is that the title (as well as the title track, which throws the most gentle shade you can imagine) is a red herring: very rarely does the album suggest any ideas for a date. Rather the album is all about Harris-White’s ruminations on love and all of its most complicated moments, which includes bumping into familiar lovers (“Circle of Love”), compromising one’s love standards (“Give It to God”) and suffering blabbering fools (“Talking Shit? Okay”, which hilariously sits next to the vicious aftermath “Burn Notice”). In between, SassyBlack has suggested some date ideas such as “Comicon”, painting herself as a “sexy Trekkie”. En route, Cat handles the trying side of love with occasional laughter.

As interesting as the idea is, what shouldn’t be hidden is SassyBlack’s usage of instruments and lyrics. Synths are a-go-go on this record. Over music that range from liquidy to extraterrestrial to sleepy (such as “Lonesome”, which sounds like a beat that sounds like one Thom Yorke would sell the b-sides of Radiohead’s newest for), Cat croons with a sultry yet serious contralto that sounds right at home with the galactic production, turning it to something close to romantic. As for the lyrics, if you were to listen, they rarely come back to verse chorus verse, as each track feels like a conversational piece that range from melancholy to hopeful. Almost improvised, if not so.

If there was one word to describe ‘No More Weak Dates’, you can choose between just these: confrontational, open, existential, exposing of our black heroine’s mind. It’s direct in ways that worries less about how to say it and more about just doing such. It’s desperate, it’s respectful, it’s embarrassed, it’s tender, it’s shady, it’s hopeful, it’s playful. Rather, it’s real. And it wouldn’t be a SassyBlack album if it were anything else.

By Lightning Pill, AFROPUNK contributor