Kissie Lee – My Toxic Love [EP]

Kissie Lee‘s single “Always Something” sets the tone for her newest EP, My Toxic Love. On the heartbreak single, the singer’s inviting soprano has moments where it shows a lot of range as it chronicles an unbalanced and ultimately toxic relationship.  The song is all at once tinged with pain, sultriness, and maturity. It’s a smartly written song with a lot of personality and the right amount of old-school mixed in with the new. And for most of My Toxic Love, Kissie Lee‘s sound comes off that way: sophisticated R&B as sung by a young woman who doesn’t particularly need to come across as mature beyond her years.

If that sounds like a jab or insult, it isn’t. Kissie carries a bit more weight and range in her bright soprano than some of her peers. It’s not hard to tell that she could cover a really gritty soul ballad from the 70’s just as easily as a pop-soul piece from just a few years ago. Besides the previously mentioned “Always Something”, the singer explores heartache on the album’s opening number, “I’m Not The Only One“. In the song, Kissie plays the role of a woman who, after being stood up by her man yet again, begins to admit the fact that she knows her guy is being unfaithful. The song’s arrangement is surprisingly bouncy yet Kissie manages to emote a sense of hurt and betrayal in her soaring delivery.

In the song “Red Flag“, Lee turns the tables and casts herself as a woman who is afraid to fully commit to being monogamous and consciously sets her relationship up for failure by doing things like keeping in touch with exes so that she has “options”. There are moments in the tune when the young vocalist digs down and adds a sense of regret and fear in her voice – which is wholly appropriate. She adds a heightened sense of contrition to her voice during the choruses and adds a pinch of the blues to her performance.

“No More” is a lighter take on the ex-man-to-the-next-man style of R&B song and has Lee bluntly explaining to her former bae that whatever they once had is now dead and buried. The production has a bit of a West Atlanta, snap music feel to it that, unfortunately, makes the song feel a little dated. And while the “you not my nigga no mo’ ” chorus may be kitschy-catchy in a certain light, its repetitive nature will quickly become irritating to most listeners. The album features more hits than misses, however, including the acoustic-guitar driven “Cocoa Butter Kisses” and a stirring piano ballad called “Always Be Mine“ that closes the album out on something of a optimistic note.

Overall I feel that My Toxic Love takes you on a sonic journey, one that is filled with tensions, twists, tangents, but at the end of the day it gets you where you need to go. The singing is clear and nuanced throughout and the production provides a framework for how to showcase a singer’s voice instead of drowning it out with over the top arrangements. These “personal” songs deliver a heartfelt narrative and create a sense of intimacy with the listener. This is an album worth having in your collection and an artist you should be watching now. You can show your support by streaming the EP on your favorite digital music spot below as well as check out more from Kissie Lee by visiting the links listed.

6/10 – Good
This is an album that listeners will like more than they dislike it. It’s an album that has at least 2 or 3 standout tracks that listeners will most likely revisit outside of listening to the entire album (ie add to a playlist, look up just to hear it/them again). This album may have filler tracks, but overall the album works

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