Oh Yeah?: The Sound of Steve Lacy Coming Undone (and Back Together)

Steve Lacy has released his third solo album, with the nonchalant title Oh Yeah? The Internet member has continued to solidify his influence at the forefront of the R&B/Alt-Pop scene with a well (bunch synonym) of collaborations with the like of Kendrick Lamar, Foushee, Solange to self producing brilliance on Steve Lacy’s Demo, a collection of six soul/RnB infused tracks mostly produced Ingeniously on the Iphone application Garageband, whilst still in High School. 

After releasing ‘Nice Shoes,’ last summer, a teaser for this project, which coincided with a Rolling Stones feature, the song felt like an extension of his Grammy Award winning Gemini Rights, which featured his mellow, breakout hit ‘Bad Habit,’ which aggressively dominated the music chart after becoming viral on TikTok with a sound reminiscent of Andre 3000 on The Love Below and multi-instrumentalist Mac Demarco. Lacy’s signature genre-blending style pairs these vintage rock and funk foundations with warm, soulful vocal melodies. 

Oh Yeah? arrives after four years of Lacy feeling more at ease abroad than in his own skin at home, a restlessness that runs through every corner of the record. Handling writing, production, and performance himself this time, he's built an album that finally sounds unfiltered to him: guitar-heavy, synth-heavy, comical and devastating in the same breath. It's the sound of someone finding his way back through life and letting us witness the whole emotional, messy, gorgeous process. 

The album titled song opens up the record with a swerve towards psychedelic, indie leaning guitar and synth pushing against each other in equal measure. The pace begins to build from a slow-burning opening into something electric with Lacy’s adlibs of ‘C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,’ pushing the track forward. Beneath the carefree, coming of age surface, sits something heavier focusing on a line about tragedy carrying on in the wind with another focusing on breakups with friends, both landing as reflections on the cost of the life he has built for himself, followed by a deep rooted uncertainty and convincing himself or someone else to stay and maintain what could be worthwhile. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYsA1raHnS0

Is It Cool? featuring contemporary R&B songstress, SZA is a confessional to the point of contradiction, with Lacy admitting that he still has a tendency to stray within a relationship despite illustrating a picture insisting that he genuinely wants to commit: ‘I just cheat every now and then/cause I really want to commit, really really want commitment.’ The striking turning point in the song turns autobiographical with a direct reference to his father, who he says died when he was around ten, tied to a line about not trusting himself to love properly. It’s the most impactful line of the record, a man mapping his present inability to settle down back to a childhood loss. 

SZA’s verse answers were kind, admitting that vulnerability is exhausting and that she’d rather skip the emotional labour and go to straight physical closeness: ‘Can we get naked instead of talking babe?’ By the end, Lacy seems to talk himself out of his guardedness, landing on the idea that he’d rather be the one worth introducing to someone’s mother, mirroring exclusivity within a relationship.

The Feeling trades the airiness of the previous track for something a bit more unsettled, Lacy sensing dangerous territory: ‘The devil is working hard to keep me alone.’ Creating an isolated feeling on this track which also feels very Thundercat inspired, with synths and bass rolling under a steady pulse and plays like a direct callback to the emotional rawness of Apollo XVII and Gemini Rights. The hook strips the song down to a single repeated question: ‘Am I your baby?’ essentially asking whether he’s really someone priority with that uncertainty remaining through the whole track. 

Pure Colour featuring fellow genre bending artist, Erykah Badu, downshifts into something eerier and slower. Lacy’s plea here is almost embarrassingly plain, longing to feel alive and to feel right. 

Show You Me is Lacy and a guitar, one chord and melody for the entire duration, no bridge or dramatic cathartic release. It has a comical element to it with a stray reference to Candy Crush landing next to real loneliness, wanting to be someone's person while watching everyone else pair off. It reads as a direct sequel to the stripped back intimacy of Gemini Rights. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo5ArzGNKTI

Doom swerves again, this time something closer to Paramore or early Green Day, with momentum and heavy guitar riffs. Lacy takes an aim at a culture that cares more about being seen than actually loving. Midway through the track, it breaks down entirely to the guitar before the ending turns dismissive, almost bratty with Lacy essentially telling someone to stop talking. 

Nothing returns to classic, guitar forward Lacy, with a one sided devotion, restlessness when left alone, a mind that can’t settle even though feeling isn’t being reciprocated. 

Sexdrugbomb (ft. Cecile Believe) is electric and searching, Lacy admitting he's aging, losing his spark, needing someone back in his corner. There's a genuinely startling moment where jealousy turns almost violent in language before he catches himself, walking it back as excessive but still meaning it: ‘Kill your boyfriend/maybe that’s excessive but I need you right here.’ The track distorts halfway through, mirroring the relationship fraying in real time. 

Nice Shoes / In Your World is the album's centerpiece and its longest statement, nine minutes split into two movements, drum & bass giving way to something more R&B-leaning. Lacy reflects on how carelessly time gets spent, admits he can be alone and still feel good about himself and lands on the idea that he deserves real love despite never quite having experienced it. It closes on a spoken word instrumental, like the thought trails off rather than resolving the issue at hand. 

Bebe closes the record on an old, warm guitar tone, a reflective goodbye built around missed calls and time slipping past, Lacy admitting, in essence, that his life got tangled up somewhere along the way. 

Four years away taught Steve Lacy how to come home and Oh Yeah? is the sound of him unpacking.