blue sixty: R. Solomon

Burt Bacharach, Erik Satie, Harry Nilsson. These were the names and ideas rattling around R. Solomon’s head as he dreamed these beautiful lo-fi pop songs into life.

“Slow tempos, really relaxed timing and feel,” the Detroit-based songwriter offers as we discuss the inspiration for his gentle, hypnagogic EP. Appropriately, the word ‘love’ comes up a lot.

“The feeling of love, self love, self strength, intention setting and boundary setting are all concepts and feelings and emotional space that inspired my writing and inspiration wave. There’s a jazzy, folk and psychedelic loungy pop unifying lens that looks at love, intimacy and personal growth.”

Though classically trained as a musician, R. Solomon’s sound revels in breaking rules. His intricate guitar passages for instance have a precious wonkiness to them that carries real personality, while his production is blurry, a deliciously smudged analogue daydream.

It’s the perfect environment for the seven-minute Lovestar to get lost in - a wish of a song with its head in the clouds. R Solomon’s wondering vocals wander out of the frame halfway through, letting a simple drum machine carry soft spirals of guitar upwards and away somewhere.

“It explores the feeling of being in love, the nature of the world altering essence and effect of love in your life and the kaleidoscopic nature of those emotions,” says R. Solomon.

These meditations on the psychedelic nature of love are hypnotising, but in lead track Having to Learn we find desire as a direct and galvanising force. A purposeful, powerful pop song of bravely strummed acoustic guitar and urgent vocals, which “analyses and calls for personal strength within lonesome times, being alone versus being lonely kind of thing. It means a lot to me whenever I sing it and perform it.”

These are pop songs as personal affirmations, “snakey and glistening” mantras for self healing that come with a perfect beat and pure, plaintive tones.