Preyé is an artist that I’d come across a few times but admittedly, I hadn’t been following her career all that closely. Yes, I loved her 2 singles in “Malibu” and “Red Wine”, but I didn’t know that she was building up to the release of her debut EP, Don’t Look Down!
Based on the two singles, I would have thought that she would give her EP a name that is more aligned with the common themes of love or love lost. My prediction wasn’t too far off when it comes to the subject matter, but I would be doing her a great disservice if I told you that the EP is one-dimensional in its construction. What I found upon listening to the EP is a deeply vulnerable artist. I know at first glance that might seem as a cliche assessment that any writer would use, but I truly mean it. Preyé showed a blatant disregard for the common practices of R&B and for lack of a better term, ‘threw all caution to the wind’.
Preyé took bold risks in both her approach to songwriting and her choice in production. She very clearly possesses all of the tools to follow the well-travelled path of other Afro R&B artists but chose not to. I can’t quite find the correct words to describe her blend of music as it has sprinkles of everything infused into it; A truly genre ubiquitous offering. Despite everything going on from a sonic perspective, I feel that the real magic is in Preye’s songwriting. It is generally accepted, by listeners and creators alike, that artists can sacrifice on the meaning behind a song for the sake of melodic resonance. In layman’s terms, even if certain lyrics aren’t necessarily true, or even contradict the overall meaning of the song, we don’t have a problem – as long as it sounds good, of course. Preyé’s approach seems to exist at the exact polar opposite of that. At no point in the duration of this 16-minute and 39-second offering, did I feel as though Preyé stretched her creative license to lean on the tales of those around her. Nor does she ever sacrifice her storytelling for melodic purposes. At every juncture, I feel as though she is telling a coherent story and I find it… refreshing. Let me know what you think of the song in the comments section and listen to Don’t Look Down! below.
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