Steve Lacy: “Gemini Rights” (Album Review)

Genres: Neo-Soul, Bedroom Pop, Psychedelic Soul

        Dropping in the middle of July, Steve Lacy’s second studio album, Gemini Rights, is full of summer hits. The perfect timing of this release is a major part of its allure, featuring danceable and rhythmic tracks that are great for sunny days. A more polished work than its predecessor, Apollo XXI, is a great function of Lacy’s creative endeavors.


        Focusing on the highs and lows of relationships, Lacy’s beautiful vocals greatly add to the feelings of bliss and nostalgia. His use of falsetto and harmonies are powerful tools that he uses to express strong emotions. What makes this especially great, is how Lacy isn’t afraid to tap into his bitter and frustrated side. “Helmet” is a funky and upbeat track with a lot of anger directed towards an unwanted partner, while “Amber” is a softer R&B song focusing on Lacy’s hurt and regret. The exploration of such a broad topic as love makes for some great moments across the record, however, the rarity of delving into the concept of each track makes for a more lackluster experience.


        As a relatively short album, Gemini Rights makes great use of its runtime by having such attention grabbing songs. While having the interlude, “2Gether (Enterlude)”, on a record with a shorter length threw off the balance of the record, it still feels incredibly whole. I’ve been able to listen to Gemini Rights multiple times within a single sitting and still thoroughly enjoy it. There’s a level of simplicity that works in favor of the album. It’s easily digestible, yet still so well crafted that repeated listens don’t take away from the sense of overall “fun”.


        Gemini Rights is a great display of Lacy’s presence, with the most compelling aspect of the album easily being his performance across each track. Continually shifting his intonation and tempo to match each song’s tone, Lacy truly understands his role as a performer in his own music. The emotional response from this is stunted by the mostly basic lyrical content. Lyrics are typically either too shallow to care about or feel so off-topic that they don’t elicit any reaction. There’s gesturing towards emotions without really getting into them. Even so, Lacy demonstrates his mastery of the art of “The Bare Maximum”, as illustrated in his 2017 TED Talk. With the minimum level of expression, Gemini Rights produces the maximum level of results.



Favorite Tracks: Helmet, Bad Habit, Amber, Mercury, Cody Freestyle


Least Favorites: 2Gether (Enterlude), Buttons



Enjoyment: Mid 8

Critically: Low 8

Arbitrary Number: 8.0/10

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