Photo by Dirk McMillian
Keshia Chanté wants you to know she has grown up. This isn’t a real reach; performers, as they age, evolve over time. Doing so is both personally and professionally important: remaining static is not as fulfilling. What was relevant to them, and us, when they debuted isn’t necessarily conducive to who they are now or who they are growing up into. Chanté made her mark on the Canadian pop world back in 2004 with “Unpredictable.” That is certainly not the swerve she takes on the considerably matured and more decidedly self-aware R&B soaked EP Unbound 01, which comes out March 24. It’s the singer’s first new music since 2011.
On Chanté’s new track “Redlight” from the EP, we see the singer take a path not too dissimilar to the one Beyonce did on her self-titled back in 2013. That’s not to compare the two: Chanté and Knowles-Carter are different musicians. But Chanté on “Redlight” sounds like someone who is very aware of the uncomfortable realities that emerge when you’re in your 20s and beyond; weaving through the unpredictabilities and emotions that come with it. To that end, her sound and the mood she creates on the track is much darker. “Redlight” is the sonic equivalent of a cool, still night: beautiful but there is something eerie in its midst, hidden in the dark. “Pain can lead people into different directions in life and different places at night,” Chanté tells Noisey in an email of “Redlight.” The track also paints us “a picture into [her] world of escapism.”
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Listen to the song below:
Sarah MacDonald is an assistant editor at Noisey Canada. Follow her on Twitter.
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