Like a leaky sink that you simply can’t get to stop dripping water drop by drop after drop, the intro to rookie track “Thinking” by R&B mastermind Edenn builds up more tension than a lot of millennials are used to in their grooves. And trust me, that’s a good thing. Right out of the gate Edenn is making it clear to us that he’s not playing games, not trying to be another Weeknd, another Michael; he wants to be Edenn, whose identity isn’t caged in or locked down to your sonic or emotional comfort zone. It takes just a couple of seconds for him to come undone and start belting out some speaker melting lyrics that go in for the kill by the first chorus and spend the rest of this song just taking sweet victory laps for kicks. I know he’s a new voice that most of us have never heard of prior to “Thinking,” but I think when you’ve got these kinds of chops, it’s okay to be a little cocky.
That’s a big problem for consumers nowadays though, isn’t it? People say that cockiness is this big turn off, yet confidence is somehow required to be taken seriously in life? I know that most people will say that there’s some big distinction between the two, some missing piece that apparently I’m being too shortsighted to consider at the moment, but at the same time, I’d point them to any Webster’s Dictionary that would clearly point out that confidence and cockiness are in fact synonyms for one another. Without wasting anymore time getting into the semantics of it, the fact is that Edenn exudes an energy when he plays that, if I didn’t know any better, would indicate to me that this is hardly his first rodeo.
You could even say that “Thinking” is a bit of an odd choice for a debut single, because of how mature and sophisticated its production ends up coming off. This doesn’t sound like a fresh kid on the block, it actually sounds like a vet, a pro behind the soundboard, coming in and putting down some solid beats like he’s making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich: spread, cut and enjoy. That said, his sound is antiquated or wishing to be a member of a generation that clearly is no longer in power. He tips his hat to the gods, but he’s no throwback. For Edenn, the future is in fact the only thing that really does matter to him.
Which brings me to my concluding question, which is Edenn so compositionally obsessed with futurism and progressive song structures? Is it that he realizes no one else is making this kind of music right now, or is it that this is the only kind of music that he artistically knows how to render? Either way, we as fans are the ones really winning the argument. “Thinking” lives up to its name and certainly gets a lot of thoughts stirring in different directions. What we think of next seems entirely up to Edenn.
Learn more at the Edenn WEBSITE and listen on SPOTIFY
-review by Jonathan Klee
