“Head to the Ground, Feet to the Clouds”: Sirius Blvck - Light in the Attic

[ Rad Summer, 2014 ]

Sirius Blvck isn’t afraid to put in work. This won’t surprise anyone following the Indianapolis rapper’s recent LP trilogy, which has proven Blvck to be—at the very least—an artist with serious stamina. Beginning with 2013’s Ancient Lights, through last January’s Year of the Snvke and the Dec. 15 release of his latest, Light in the Attic, the indomitable Indy emcee has dropped three full-length albums in just under 22 months.  And he still sounds hungry.

On Light in the Attic, Blvck teams up again with producer Bones of Ghosts, who continues to operate on a sonic plane somewhere between sun-baked VHS exercise tapes of the late 80s and the slick, angular production of modern alternative R&B. Like longtime collaborators Drake and Noah '40' Shebib, the relationship between vocalist and producer here has become so enmeshed in the very fabric of the project that it almost becomes hard to imagine one without the other.

But smart production isn’t the only thing going for Blvck’s latest effort. Light in the Attic showcases some of the sharpest verses the rapper has managed in his recent string of full lengths. On Attic’s excellent first single, “Young Vultures,” Blvck weaves effortlessly through the pillowy beat, calling to mind the aesthetic gymnastics of Main Attrakionz with beat-dreamers Clams Casino and Friendzone, flexing his lyrical strength against the track’s gossamer textures:

Asking my father what it costs to be a man,

he thought about it and drew a blank stare in the West End.

Sunlight pouring out the palm of my hand,

livin’ in the divine light, livin’ like a dead man.

In moments like this one, Blvck favors the evocative over the precise, turning personal reflections into cosmic ones. These pivots stand out as the best moments of the record, and they anchor against the heavy-handed hook worship creeping into the somewhat less invigorated lyrical work of songs like “Smoke Signals.” But whatever hat Blvck wears from one verse to the next, it’s clear that Light in the Attic is the sound of an artist who has only begun to show what he’s capable of.

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Sirius Blvck will be performing with Oreo Jones, Nightcap, Birdbath, and DJ Littletown on January 9th @ The Bishop in Bloomington, Indiana. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.