Natural is Zay’Marie’s new 5-track EP that’s here to show her prowess as an R&B idol through explorations of love and connection; that be emotional, physical, or spiritual. This release shows a step up in production from Zay’Marie’s previous singles. And, as her first collected body of work, it shows her ability to mesh cohesiveness and versatility.
The first thing to note that ties things together is the vocals. In general, they offer up a lush and smooth softness to them. They hit a range of breathy brighter tones and full lower tones. The melody is complemented well with gorgeous backing harmonies. Zay’Marie definitely knows her range and how to use it to best utilize the sound space.
Secondly, there’s a basis of love in the lyricism. Each track on Natural explores love in some type of way. For example, the opener “Natural” states “It’s elemental more than physical / goes further than skin deep / No, it’s instinctual.” It references this physical connection as being elemental and asks if it’s spiritual. Overall, it references love that’s physical but goes deeper than that. Additionally, this can be seen in the track “Surrender,” which gets into a story of wanting to have someone’s surrender for the night, until the sun comes up.
Though these musical themes run through this project, it refuses to be stagnant. It’s tied together but dynamic at the end of the day. The title track and opener “Natural” has a jazzy nostalgic R&B sound, then it moves to “Open” which is more synthy with a bit of a lo-fi undertone. After this, “Surrender” picks up the tempo and gives more rhythm vocally. This flows into “Flow” which has atmospheric synths and includes a fire rap verse by Nebeyou. To finish things off “High” works with more atmosphere, unique synth sounds, and clacky percussion. No track on this EP sounds too similar, and it gives points of intrigue around each corner.
This EP shows Zay’Marie’s ability to break the boundaries of genre while not straying too far from the core of a project. It wraps itself up in a lovely beauty, and its portrayals of love and connection seem to come straight from the heart. Overall, this is a very strong first EP that shows both passion and skill.
Zay’Marie is a Washington DC-based R&B artist who got her start in Virginia Beach known for her ability to be dynamic in performance with both originals and covers. Her previous single “Too Far” has garnered over 145,000 Spotify streams. This single has also been given a W.A.M. Award in the pop/EDM category. Zay’Marie is already making a splash, so let’s see how she climbs from here!
Written by Sage Plapp
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