Ray Laurél Steals Our Hearts With the Nonconforming 'TEMPTRESS'
Explosive and deeply personal, Gujarati artist Ray Laurél stands in a mold of their own on their alt-indie EP TEMPTRESS, fusing genres to birth a project that is moody, textured, and enrapturing.
In only six songs, TEMPTRESS lets us meet every layer beneath Laurél’s skin. From their softest edges to their debilitating angst, there’s no space between their heart and pen. While we’ve only just met the artist, having put out their first song only a year ago, their ability to access the innermost depths of their psyche and translate it into something captivating is why he’s an artist ringing so many alarms.
“DONTLEAVEMYSIDE” intros us to the project, setting the tone aggressively high. Theatric and invigorating, the track features Jeshi, a fellow Brown artist representing something so much larger than himself in their commitment to individualism. The EP’s title track is melancholically hopeful, exemplifying a skill the East Londoner has mastered. Standing at the intersection of so many polarizing truths, masculine and feminine, aggressive and submissive, their duality is expressed in the fluidity of their music, their works’ inability to be one-dimensional.
The standout track, sung during their COLORS performance, “CHARLES JEFFREY,” used to close out the Charles Jeffrey AW23 Fashion Week show, was written in homage to the designer, finding solace in the gender nonconformity of their work. This partnership only makes sense, since Ray Laurel himself is a refusal of norm, whether it be cultural, musical, or societal.
Closing out with the tragic “BETTER,” written and produced alongside Jonah Gram, this track sounds like something off of James Blake’s Overgrown, and there’s something uncomfortable you feel in your bones when you finally get here. It’s an emotion yet to be named, but enough to make your eyes well. As the writer and producer of their music, Ray Laurel has done the heavy lifting on TEMPTRESS, making a project you will think about long after the music stops.
Listen to TEMPTRESS below:
