As their stage name suggests, the collaboration between Atlanta singer-songwriters Alexe Belle and Isis Valentino (who have been mentored by Janelle Monaé) revolves around the pursuit of immaculate sonic artistry for the sake of the mind, body, soul, and spirit. On “Caught”, a recent track that served on the soundtrack of episode seven of HBO’s Insecure (“Hella Disrespectful”), St Beauty describe the process of disassociating from an unfaithful lover as a form of quasi-spiritual purging, a cool and effortless pursuit of emotional homeostasis: ‘He was the coolest I had ever known/ He did me dirty so I let him go/ Now everything is alright/ After I said goodbye’.
Valentino and Belle each take a turn to evoke the hurt of the present (‘You ain't worth nothing/ I should've seen it coming/ You said I was the only one’ and ‘I know what you're doing/ Behind my back screwing’). They then harmonize on the chorus, which spells out the even-headed emotional path to pursue in the near future. There’s plenty of open space between their silky R&B vocal harmonies and the song’s lush, reverb-drenched beats. There’s a sonic minimalism that is rarely associated with the breakup song genre here, one that makes it both timeless and forward-looking. Letting go and moving one has never been this is breezy or understatedly sultry.
Their stylish Lacey Duke-directed music video augments their ethos of music and the pursuit of beauty as a form of self-care with a palette of muted pastels. It sets a promising stage for their upcoming Running to the Sun EP, which will be released this month.
