After earning critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination (Best Urban Contemporary Album) for his debut album Ology (2016), Maryland singer-songwriter Gallant (Christopher Gallant) has emulated Far East Movement by looking east - specifically towards South Korea - and collaborated with some movers and shakers from the K-Pop scene. The result is "Cave Me In", a three way with Seoul-based Korean-American singer-songwriter Eric Nam and South Korean alternative hip hop group Epik High's Tablo.
While Gallant had indicated an openness towards eclectic cultural inspirations by releasing a track named "Miyazaki" (presumably as an oblique reference to famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki), his primary influences thus far appear to be ’80s and ’90s R&B, soul and hip hop. These are the very set of influences that inspire many of the K-Pop musical acts which are aiming to break into the American music market, a feat which East Asian pure pop-leaning artists such as Utada Hikaru, BoA, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Girls Generation (aka SNSD) have thus far failed to achieve (the epic viralness of Psy's "Gangnam Style" nonewithstanding).
The international-leaning "Cave Me In", presents a '90s R&B sound, a focus on the universal question of love, and a chill atmosphere that merited Tablo's description of the song as a “perfect before-and-after-the-club-Uber-ride anthem”. It resulted from Tablo and Gallant meeting at Coachella, with Nam being roped in at a later point in time. While the track is not singular enough to catapult itself or its vocalists into everyone's consciousness, its impeccably smooth and retro vibes will make you nostalgic for time when R. Kelly, Brandy and Boyz II Men ruled the airwaves:
'These flies on my window are winners in a losing gameDip, duck, roll, and hoverThey barely see a season change
While you and me live like birds on a power lineHands gripping, and our fingers friedGod bless those Northern lightsAnd our own devices, babeEntropy multipliesClock's ticking and I'm mortified'Cause in the back of my mindIn the back of my hemisphere
Baby, I want you to cave me inSo maybe I won't have to admit itBaby, I want you to cave me inSo maybe I won't ask to forget it'
Lyrics: Musixmatch
