A springboard for a fascinating career, Danity Kane gave Dawn Richard the connections and the confidence to release a series of uncategorizable albums. My favorite artists, I’ve realized, negotiate a wobbly peace between observation and submission. With the wind chime synthetics of which she’s fond sitting atop beats that sometimes stop at the theoretical, Dawn creates the impression she’s at once writhing with dance floor revelers and watching from the soundproof deejay booth upstairs. The cyborg chic in which she traffics isn’t armor — she fears no one. Call it a fashion choice, as if there were anything wrong with it. Her high voice with its chalky textures can project longing and her welcome self-containment. She releases EPs as long as full-length LPs. Her “outros” are songs. To sit, legs crossed, at a crossroads of several aesthetic possibilities suits her fine. While I play Redemption (2016) most, start anywhere; she had me with 2012’s “EP” Armor On. Second Line, released earlier this year, exploits nostalgia for its only function: a peg on which to hang the present.
Or you can start with this playlist:
1. The Louvre
2. Gleaux
3. Black Lipstick
4. Ride For You (Danity Kane)
5. In Your Eyes
6. Change
7. Bussifame
8. dreams and converse
9. Black Crimes
10. SELFish (Outro)
11. Frequency
12. Hold Me Down (Danity Kane)
13. Perfect Storm
14. Scripture
15. ’86
16. spaces
Humanizing The Vacuum 