Nx Blame - A True Love Story

Nx Blame. Photo by Lauren Phariss.

Sometimes love is the only shelter we have in a world that seems to only being growing colder. Kansas City artist Nx Blame (pronounced No Blame) sings about love on his latest two-song single, appropriately titled A True Love Story, released last month. The release marks a departure for him in a couple ways; it's his first release under the name Nx Blame (formerly Sammy) and his first where his vocals are primarily sung rather than rapped.

 

"Summer," the first of the two songs, is a light and uncluttered R&B pop track that conjures twilight hues with electric piano chords, a smooth bass line, and lyrics about sipping wine with an unnamed love interest. The song is true to the time of its creation -- Blame sings about planning dates and vacations, "but corona got us waiting" -- without being overbearing. From the simple beauty of its opening lyric -- "And I can't stop the burning of the sun / But the summer doesn't heat up without you" -- to Blame's lightly autotuned falsetto on the chorus, every moment of "Summer" is worth basking in.

The second of the two songs, "What I Want," while not a waste of time by any means, doesn't quite deliver at the level of "Summer." Like the previous track, the song is an exercise in R&B pop, but this time with a guitar hook and much bigger drum sounds, similar to the retro production style popular on today's Top 40 radio. Blame also goes big in his vocal delivery here, dropping the easygoing approach he took on "Summer" for one that is more full-throated. The vocals here are imperfect, but not anything too bizarre (think Trippie Redd, but less coarse) and do require a relatively impressive amount of commitment to execute. This bolder, more modern sound is not the problem, rather, the lack of evocative imagery and focused lyric writing that Blame displayed on "Summer" and past SoundCloud drops. 

 

Nevertheless, this pair of songs is well worth a listen and marks Nx Blame as a young Kansas Citian worth watching.

Stream the songs below.

NX BLAME · A True Love Story