Album Review: Omar Apollo - Friends (2019)

Album: Friends

Artist: Omar Apollo

Listed as “Alternative” by Apple Music’s genre categorization algorithm, Omar Apollo’s groovy sophomore EP effort Friends, may actually fit best in that category despite how much its content rejects genre. The album is not alternative in the traditional sense — it lacks the uniform folky, melancholic sound and quirky and forlorn lyric that defines alternative giants like Tracy Chapman, The Lumineers and Mumford & Sons, but the album is not straight funk or groove either. What is most interesting is that the album is a melange of it all, a bold extension and embracement of the genreless future music is headed toward, spearheaded by folks like Janelle Monae. In just twenty-three minutes, Apollo’s gives his listeners a truly varied experience — ”There for Me” and “Hearing Your Voice” are reminiscent of the Post Malone’s over-embellished and distinctly nostalgic vocals, while tracks like “So Good” confirm Apollo’s affinity for the 80s, the production immediately rendering images of Janet and Prince, and consequently their contemporary progeny, Janelle Monae and Bruno Mars. Apollo’s closing track, “Trouble” sounds almost identical to the soft-rock and R&B stew that was so flawlessly perfected by Miguel’s tertiary 2015 effort, Wildheart. Omar Apollo is killing it — and he is flawlessly honoring the funk royalty that preceded his career while fully embracing what stereotypically defines alternative in the EP’s title track. It is impossible not to label the EP alternative — Apollo’s assortment of tracks, while individually calling back to artists, sound like no one else when packaged as one work.

Songs like “Ashamed” are so necessary to reorient the album as a trailblazer, not just an evocation of Apollo’s inspirations. As he moans, groans and shrieks over the lyrics, “Easy coming / easy going / Talk too much making me really wanna come through,” he sounds like he has quite frankly lost his shit — such tangible thirst and desire make it impossible to take your headphones out. What happens next is even more exciting — the second half of the song, which maintains the funk-vibe that defines the song while completely changing the tempo, gives us an exciting twist to Justin Timberlake’s trope of packing two songs and numerous motifs into one. However, unlike JT, Apollo establishes these two moods in under 3 and a half minutes. Ashamed — and it is no accident that it serves as the album’s first track — serves as the paradigm for the listening journey to come. Apollo’s melanges genre flawlessly, without exhausting his listener or appearing contrived or disingenuous. One listen through the EP, fishtailing from funk to pop, from folk to rock, Apollo never once feels inauthentic — this is indeed his arena. With finesse and concision, Apollo demonstrates his versatility, declaring that he can evoke the nostalgia of funk and pop artists that defined music while pushing the envelope. Apollo does to genre what record executives who owe their careers to the confines of it could never fathom —the destruction of it. If you want to listen to a refreshing record from a young artist who knows himself — who sits untouched by music’s recent sycophant tendencies — take a listen to Omar Apollo’s “Friends.”

Score: 87/100