Release Radar: February 2022

This is a blurb that I wrote for the series Release Radar. Read the whole listicle here.

Photos courtesy of Dirty Hit and Colin Solal Cardo

Image courtesy of Because Music

TWISTED BASES BY CRYSTAL MURRAY

France-based Crystal Murray’s new EP Twisted Bases is futuristic, energetic, and soulful. The singer-songwriter is climbing the R&B scene, with this EP cementing her rising star status. Twisted Bases is playful, fervent, and ultramodern in a way that one does not often see in music today. The EP opens with “BOSS,” a track whose domineering attitude shows clear influence from Kelis. This confidence and swagger is displayed throughout the EP: In “Too Much to Taste,” Murray brings this confidence to the bedroom, in a hot and heavy banger with poetic descriptions about her fantasies. The same can be said for “Like It Nasty,” where Murray expresses more of her dominant side. The album isn’t all edge, though: the barely 20-year-old explores more complicated emotions in tracks such as “EGO,” where she relives a toxic relationship that she can't escape. “Other Men” explores this as well, with Murray recounting the guilt of wanting to cheat on her emotionally distant partner. Twisted Bases is an excellent display of artistic talent from a future star, and Crystal Murray should stay on the public’s radar.