“Caught”, the lead single from St. Beauty’s debut EP Running to the Sun (January 19, 2018), was the perfect introduction to Atlanta singer-songwriters Alexe Belle and Isis Valentino’s brand of silky-smooth vocal harmonies, unique visual style and bright, sparkly blend of R&B, neo-soul, and electronic music. (If you had not already been familiarized with “Borders” via Issa Rae’s HBO series Insecure, that is). In their profile for Refinery29, Belle described the emotional multi-dimensionality of their sonic aesthetic as “confetti”:
“We even came up with our own name for our genre: Confetti. Because confetti has so many phases. When it blows out, it’s exciting; when it’s falling, you feel awe; when it hits the ground, it’s mellow tranquility…and then when it’s time to throw it all away, you feel melancholy. All of those moods...that is our music.”
Follow-up single “Not Discuss It” parses out the emotional entanglements that its predecessor brushed away a tad too easily (‘He did me dirty so I let him go/ Now everything is alright/ After I said goodbye’). This time, there are no easy conclusions at hand. Belle and Valentino describe an impasse in a relationship after betrayal on both sides (‘You did dirt in the beginning/ I just return you the favor’). They lament their lover’s inability to listen and understand their perspective, and then delicately excoriate the chaotic status quo that is likely to persist: ‘Or we can not discuss it, let’s just argue bout it later on, on/ Or we can just continue making love until we’re dead and gone, oh’.
The 808 drums are used sparsely, allowing the duo’s tender and meditative solo vocals and harmonies to shine. There is a tinge of melancholy here, but no fury, despair or fatalism. Even in the face of near-certain romantic disappointment, Belle and Valentino seem poised, elegant and tentatively hopeful that all this fighting will give way to peace and a mutual understanding. The emotional wounds may still be open, but they are already in the process of healing.
