Review: Loyd’s ‘Get a Taste’ is peak dance-pop
Loyd shoots for the stars on new album.
Dance-infused pop music makes you feel alive. There’s an ephemeral quality to it, as though the present moment is all we really have in this world. Such modern pop albums as Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia shoot adrenaline straight into the brain and force you to come to terms with existence. With disco lights fluttering over seductive backbeats, this kind of pop music invigorates you from the inside out. There’s no stopping the pulsating glow that radiates from each melody, seeping into the pores and later sidewinding into the eardrums. As in the case of Loyd‘s new album, Get a Taste, the music possesses the limbs with blistering ooze — thick with vintage production and melodramatic caramel. He’s devilish and wicked, enticing the listener to ride the high until the sun comes up.
“I don’t wanna see you happy now when my life is so upside down,” Loyd admits in “Green,” one of the project’s more somber, reflective bits. The lyrical glow radiates from the speakers, counteracting the slithering, grimy rhythm that works its way into the bloodstream. An analysis of jealousy and the aftereffects on mental anguish, the low-key banger throbs from the brain stem down the nervous system. Through a disco-pop prism, Loyd finds solace in getting the body moving and encouraging the listener to leave their misery at the door. There’s no teardrops on the dancefloor. There’s only dancing away the pain.
The album might not solve all your problems, but it does deliver a well-earned reprieve for 53 minutes. “Phantom Love” struts up the backbone, an energized runway routine, while “Fuck with Me” is like swimming in aromatic gasoline. Across 15 songs, a tall order in the age of streaming and bite-sized viral hits, Loyd paralyzes you with buttery, seductive grooves and honeysuckle vocals. Get a Taste is standing beneath a glitter ball at midnight, as the mirrored, ghostly orbs flutter on your skin. It’s feeling the adrenaline rush as you lose yourself in the moment, the beats growing thick in your bones. It’s the air swelling and reddening around you with the music crashing into your eardrums and drowning out your everyday existence. You only have the moment, a fleeting second to appreciate life. Within the album’s red and pink hues, you discover what it means to live ferociously.
Loyd doesn’t evade the tragedies of life. He embraces them through a cascade of beats, synths, and piano keys. “You moved on, no lesson learned,” he quivers in “Narcissus,” a downcast, muted confessional in which he rewinds a relationship and clasps the flames that still smoke his being. Loyd peels back the crusted, charred layers of the heart any chance he gets. In exposing raw nerve endings, he comes to full enlightenment – all while bathing in dance music. He licks his lips on Get a Taste, too, a daring career pinnacle that proves exactly why he should be a household name. His ambition fuels him, and his craft is better for it.
Get a Taste situates itself comfortably next to records from Charli XCX, Paris Hilton, and Sabrina Carpenter. We don’t deserve the excellence of Loyd, but Loyd deserves the world. Think about that.
Listen to Get a Taste below.
