Neutro
Verbatim
SCORE: 6 out of 10
Verbatim is a concise, albeit incomplete, opening statement of a promising career. Neutro seamlessly mixes aesthetics with such confidence that you might not think this is a debut, but his inability to keep up the momentum will leave you skeptic to the idea of him being able to pull off a truly engaging full LP.
It’s been a long road for Mexicali-based producer and artist Kenneth Sosa (aka Neutro) to get to this moment, but it seems that it was all worth it. Without going into details, let’s just say it’s quite endearing to see that it all lead up to the release of this EP, and that it is actually getting moderate acclaim and acceptance due to the genre-fluid and feel-good nature of most tracks, although there are some naysayers that, instead critiquing the music, disregard Neutro as a fad-chasing artist due to his appearance. That part is irrelevant, as dressing like he should belong in a k-pop video doesn’t make his music any better or worse, just as dressing like a washed up rockstar doesn’t turn your bar band into Guns N’ Roses (which is not even a good thing to begin with). Anyhow…
Musically speaking -as one should be- Verbatim is a concise, albeit incomplete, opening statement of a promising career. Kenneth seamlessly mixes pop, trap and hip-hop aesthetics with such ease and confidence, that you might not think this is barely a debut, but his inability to keep up the momentum will leave you a little skeptic to the idea of him being able to pull off a truly engaging LP.
“Anhelo” might be the only standout track, and not because the other songs are bad, but the flourishing details and tridimensional production give it so much weight, even if it has the usual composition tricks of modern trap tinged pop. Its slow cadence reflects the lamenting nature of the lyrics, and it evokes the discomfort of someone rolling on the bed struggling to get some sleep; there’s coherence between the overall lyrical theme and the composition, and the reaction is full of sparks. Unfortunately, the vocal performance is somewhat weird, and not in an Elsiane-Meredith Monk-Kate Bush kind of way.
I’m all for off-beat voices and non-musical vocal approaches, but considering the moments in which Neutro doesn’t fall into it, the breathy and almost-out-of-tune approach actually comes off as if he was trying too hard to come up with a distinctive tone. Frankly, this is unnecessary, as his natural timbre is nice enough. This being his debut, though, it’s only natural that Neutro is still in a formative stage, and he actually shows to be a pretty versatile singer, as he can go from soft spoken verses to catchy choruses -with some rapping in between- quite organically.
“Fue un gran verano” and “Hemorragia” are glossier, more upbeat cuts, but -ironically- they don’t shine as much as “Anhelo”, even when the latter is darker and slower. It just feels as if all the focus went into that song, and the rest of the EP was just an afterthought. Take “Hacia el Fondo” by Rubio, strip away all its interesting twists and turns, and you end up with “Fue un gran verano” (although, what sounds like a guitar solo at the end is a nice touch); “Hemorragia” has a cute guitar intro but as soon as everything else comes in, we’re thrown into an uneventful track that doesn’t do much in terms of closing the EP. Verbatim leaves us wanting more, not because of its greatness, but because it fails to provide closure; it’s just not fair for something that started so promising, to end in such a low note.
