Do You by Felix Raphael
Mental health, or its absence, is hardly an unknown subject in pop songs: “insane” is a neat duosyllable that rhymes with so many other words. DO YOU, the latest full-length from Berlin musician Felix Raphael, is a deeper and more pointed exploration of mental health.
Not merely an increasingly known electronic artiste but also a social worker, Raphael extends the exploration across a 16-track song and mood cycle that frequently conveys the sheer turmoil of dealing with something that is supposedly “all in the mind.”
The experience as a social worker helps Raphael convey that; his multitalented musicianship adds to the conveyance. If synthesizers and mixdown modifications are expectedly primary elements, he also plays piano, guitar, and fluegelhorn.
Those more recognizably organic instruments serve as markers of humanity, of fingers doing more than pressing buttons and turning knobs. Raphael’s voice is an even more potent marker, a softly confident relative to bedroom indie-pop like the Postal Service and the introspective side of neo-R&B a la the recently departed D’Angelo.
Mostly, Raphael performs and assembles on his own, although that isn’t necessarily evident: “Medication (Pull Me Out the Rain)”—the parenthetical asides abandon some prepositions—has a beat propulsive enough to invite someone else to dance to, and “911’s (To Feel Safe in Place)” splices in mobile-phone buzzes and comforting voices from the outside world.
When actual collaborators, other electronic artistes, enter the music, they are especially supportive: Natascha Polké could be a lover, a friend, or a mother in “Resilience (Just for a While),” and Yannek Maunz lightly, carefully intertwines his production, mixing, and keyboard skills with Raphael’s in “Therapy (Leave Me on My Own).”
Ending with the title track, DO YOU is at ease with a trip-hop rhythm, pop-jazzy piano chords, and an outro Felix Raphael speaks rather than sings, albeit just as softly. His tone is more an au revoir of benediction than a final goodbye.
|
|
