This debut EP from Melbourne singer and producer Chet Faker gives an almighty nod to the legions of male neo-soul and R&B vocalists preceding it. But Chet’s brand of bedroom R&B estranges itself from the overproduction and ‘star power’ bombast of his R&B forerunners by being impressively intimate in subject matter and sound.
This record is both from the bedroom and about the bedroom, taking us on a journey of sexual yearning while also managing to be a cruisey, companionable and chilled out ride. In a voice that’s at once familiar and hard to place, Chet delivers a dub-influenced cover of Blackstreet’s 1996 single ‘No Diggity’ (a homage to a classy prostitute), his hoarse rendition of Dr. Dre’s lines “I can’t get her outta my mind /I think about the girl all the time” communicating the obsession of unrequited lust with a sophistication Dr. Dre couldn’t muster.
Standout track ‘Cigarettes & Chocolate’ is a genuinely inventive pastiche of ghostly vocal loops, beats and warm guitar that evokes the spook-factor of Burial as well as The Avalanches at their most irrepressible. Diggity. Definitely diggity.
