Kintsugi is a word defined as: the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a lacquer resin sprinkled with powdered gold. The results are stunning, it creates cracked rivers of gold running throughout the original art piece, giving it a heightened sense of beauty. MILOSH’s album is not broken, nor is it cracked, brittle, or weak, but it is delicate and beautiful. Kintsugi is not just about fixing something that has lost its value, it is about honoring and preserving the value an original piece has always possessed. Michael Milosh, one half of the duo RHYE, is reestablishing what it means to write an album centered around love. He holds the emotions in cupped hands and gives us a product that is anything but trite.
Jetlag is like a tunnel with graffiti painted throughout its entirety. If you walk, you’ll be able to glance and ponder the pieces as they stand alone. Run, and they will slam together, creating an experience that is no less charming and distinct. The album is heavily steeped in loops, reverbs and samples, yet it comes off as organic. Tangible. Maybe its because MILOSH’s murmurs echo beyond the music, out of reach, beyond the corner. Or perhaps it is because the treatment is so undoubtedly genuine that we do not scrunch our eyebrows at the tempo bouncing in our ears.
MILOSH’s fourth solo album is airy and soothing, yes, but the sensuality of the lyrics cake the beats and create a slightly anxious atmosphere. Don’t Call It has a woman moaning and gasping throughout the whole song, which sounds crude, but they are used only as a bookmark; he is saying “this is but a moment I am highlighting, it is not the whole story”.
Jetlag is lethargic, yet energetic in its continuity. Each track places a moment before you that unfolds, bends, morphs, and trickles through the speakers. Warm, content, and natural. MILOSH sings not just as an addition to the music, but as a key feature that drives the album forward, and up and down. Jetlag is one of those special albums that is good if you’re giving it half of your attention or all of it.
Jetlag is an honest compilation of events that clearly show MILOSH’s deference towards love.
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