PREMIERE | Joy Postell, 'The Magician'
Ruler of the new school of r&b — Joy Postell; press photos courtesy of Joey Whitley.
Love is magic. Love is sacred. Love is light. Love is life affirming. Love is healing. Love is unique. Love is vision. Love is something beyond ourselves. Love is art. Love is communication. Love is respect. Love is connection and compromises. Love is a language. Love is more than a feeling. Love is not fleeting. Love is not fickle. Love is not judgement. Love is spiritual. Love is ineffable. Love is hope. Love is a new chance. Love is beautiful. Love is all the aforementioned and so much more.
Love is The Magician, the inspired new EP from lauded Baltimore r&b pop icon Joy Postell. The artist has garnered attention over the past decade with a proliferation of singles, influential releases with the prescient Diaspora, Back and Forth and more that have uplifted the cultural consciousness with a higher message of celestial light for today’s turbulent times. Shining forth bright beams of truths in the face of systemic oppression and countering adversity with storytelling arts of earnest affections; Joy’s oeuvre of work intuitively precipitated the upheavals, uprisings and tribulations witnessed in recent years with a bastion of suave self-styled rhythm and rhymes that offer an antidote of unrelenting liberation in the face of global, local and personal points of conflicts and attrition.
The Magician is an ode to joy, pleasure, harmony, intimacy and the limitless healing powers of love. Never one to shy away from the inherent messiness of life and the glaring imperfections of a world consumed by complicit capitalist colonial hegemony and all of its exploitive underpinnings and effects — Joy Postell delivers a succinct song book dedicated to the omnipotent and transformative aura of unlimited affection that can move mountains, bridge all divides and bring about a peace that defies comprehension and the limited extents of expression.
Piano keys lead the way on "intro" as Joy turns the lights down with manifestations of candid gestures shared between two privy lovers in the gentle throes of passion. Setting the mode and the scene, the evocative track grows more hypnotic and sensual like an erotic and esoteric tractate from Song of Songs. Postell glides serenely into the big single "At Ease" that outlines the principles of pleasure and bedroom slow dances in a sinewy production that undulates in steamy and smoky intonations. The beats softly bounce like champagne bubbles in a production that percolates with chopped and stewed vocal cuts that move with a silhouetted carnality like a shadow show displayed behind the curtained cover cloak of silk sheets.
Journeys of love with Joy Postell; photographed by Joey Whitley.
The intricacies of interpersonal dynamics are explored in "sweetest thing" that pushes forward from the past in a testimonial to an unbreakable tier of devotion. Joy doesn't flinch at the difficulties in the sports of amour, leaning in toward an exclusivity shared with a kindred special someone that is greater than the sum of all arguments, shortcomings and the headaches and heartaches of histories. Closing with "on me", Joy paints a picture of a lavish and beautiful love supreme. The culmination of visions, a strong connection and intuitive bond blooms into an effervescent sea of horns that dearly rocks with heart and soul toward a higher plane of existence and shared living. The Magician is a new testament to the timeless strength and enchanted ore of finding that elusive one person that brings out your best self and inspires a lifetime of building futures, castles in the sky and fortunes untold.
The creative pop prowess of Joy Postell; photographed by Joey Whitley.
Joy shared the following exclusive insights on The Magician EP:
The Magician is my most intimate offering thus far and I am extremely excited to share with the world a collection of songs that shows the strength in being vulnerable and open to love.
Reflections by Joy Postell; photographed by Joey Whitley.
It is my hope that everyone who lends an ear is able to feel every emotion poured into the music and connect with me on a deeper level.
Pre-save Joy Postell’s The Magician EP here.
Cover art for The Magician, courtesy of Joshua Slowe.