Album Review: Behind the Shades by Chris Crispy
The Los Angeles producer and engineer sings lead on his own soft R&B songs about crushes, contact highs, and confessions he keeps putting off. The melodies say what the words never get around to.
Los Angeles is a city of professionals. The bulk of the R&B that is written and recorded in the city is written and recorded by working professionals. Christopher Allan Smith fits the description. For years, he worked behind the glass as the drummer for The Internet under the pseudonym Chris Crispy. Behind the Shades, his debut as a solo artist, is a 27-minute collection of soft, languid R&B about wanting someone and being unable to quite get to the point of saying it.
He’s charmed on “Angel” as he reels off lines like did it hurt when you fell from heaven and please forgive me if I sin today as he grapples with the feelings he can’t keep to himself. The song is a real lover’s plea, as he promises to be true and not let her slip away. The song has a great laid-back, slow-jam vibe that really makes the girl an idea with feathers and him the man enchanted by her. “Hidden Feelings” is more of the same as he is once again smitten and tries to come up with a plan to give her something to hold. He wants to tell her in person, to hand her the idea on a silver platter as he declares “I know a thing you don’t/You might feel the same/At least I hope.” He is a man who would rather speak the words of love to her in person than scribble them down on a love letter. He bails on the plan at hand to sing a la-la-las as he launches into a full confession. Syd steps in on “Hidden Feelings” to answer his questions and reveal that now that he knows the truth (“Now you know/But do you feel the same?”), and she answers in her cool tones at the end of the song.
When the nerve fails him, he floats and enlists time as a game on “My Mind” with “I’m rolling dice getting high every night” as the sum of the song. The melodies and the notes that make up the verses reflect on strength and reality. The most humorous aspect of this song is the gentlemanly manner in which he issues the invitations to love on “My Mind.” The same smoke wafts from “Yellow Brick.” The opening salutation of the song’s weirdos is followed by a narrative which takes place in the land of Oz. Two lovers are strolling through the landscape. They pass the scarecrow, the lion and the tin man who are searching for a brain, a heart and a soul. And the two lovers arrive at the epiphany that “This life is but a dream” and proceed to search for a castle in the sky to call their own. The one high of his that he can get off on is one that goes somewhere. Once he has a map to dreamland, he writes the details of the journey of the two lovers perfectly.
On “Nothing Serious” (which Bobby Earth co-produced with Smith), the two artists trade lines of wanting to grab hold of each other. They’d go get lunch, rub bellies, and Smith would pull Bobby Earth up to singing such lines as “I’ll go get paid/Only if you want me to.” Smith would bring them to a pretty and scenic new house that he and Bobby Earth worked hard to build, and where, in Smith’s most romantic moments, he’d roll up to, rhyming. The follow-up, “FML,” is a darker song, with Smith admitting to losing love, wondering if it was lust or if he just had fun with her. He’s a little stammering as he concedes that he can’t get back time that’s been lost. His usually open heart is only nearly sweet in his concession. The song is heavy with a synth-bass.
Even on “Ahhhh,” the widest thing here, he keeps the words small. He starts from a couple of dull days at work, drives out to see her on a night with stars up all night and is amped to break the rules and change up the game for one night with her. But instead of that, he’s stuck in the middle of the night with “Rock or soul/We’re all the same.” The closest he comes to describing her is “She’s got the coolest way about her size,” offhand enough to be a shrug. On “You Know,” things come into focus, and he finally realizes he has a problem with his heart. He can’t guard his heart because she leads him on and on, trying to compare her pull to that of a siren, knowing that glitz and glamour lead to regret and sleepless nights. He’s been there for all of her late-night conversations, and that’s all he can do. His words can’t convey the depth of his feelings, but they’re there, even as he tries to let go and fail. He folds, and then dives off again, waiting on tides that never turn for him. He’s wide awake in the trap of his own making, and he has more words for this scenario than he does for his daydreams of her.
Above Average (★★★☆☆)
Favorite Track(s): “Hidden Feelings,” “Yellow Brick,” “You Know”