THE REGRET
GOLDLINK
And After That We Didn’t Talk When GoldLink first emerged with The God Complex, the often introspective and insightful lyricism was slightly overshadowed by the fixation with “future bounce,” the refreshingly different beats fusing ’90s R&B, dance and hip-hop references in a contemporary way. On And After That We Didn’t Talk, he strikes admirable balance between the music and lyrics; both push past safe and comfortable conventions, to the album’s benefit. Lyrically, GoldLink mines the dissolution of an intense romantic relationship and all its associated detritus in excruciating detail, revealing more about himself than he did on The God Complex — his naked honesty on the first two tracks alone, “After You Left” and “Zipporah,” is compelling, and the latter’s gospel-tinged arrangements give it added weight. While the album revels in the future bounce aesthetic, GoldLink’s main musical conspirator, Louie Lastic, oversees a sonic breadth here, allowing GoldLink to both rap and sing over an addictive mix of house, dance and R&B on this appealing album. (Equative Thinking/Soulection, soundcloud.com/equativethinking)
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANTED TO ACHIEVE?
Honestly my only real goal was to make an album for this girl I was involved with for a number of years and just to let her know. We were always beefing. And so I really wanted to do this because my other music before, when it wasn’t going well, was really angry and really derogatory towards her. I felt like people didn’t really realize where the anger was coming from. I pretty much wanted to go back in time. It’s pretty much like The God Complex was Chapter 2 and this album was Chapter 1 because it showed how I got there, and it was pretty much an apology to her. The things I regret or the things I did, or the things I said that were out of context and that she couldn’t understand, I apologized for. That was my whole goal.
CAN YOU DEFINE FUTURE BOUNCE FOR PEOPLE WHO MAY NOT UNDERSTAND?
It’s like futuristic nostalgia. You know, we’re pretty much taking the essence of the ’90s or the ’80s or the ’70s — taking that bounce and recreating it in today’s times, is what future bounce would be considered. DEL F. COWIE