We often enter the world of music to escape a reality, passing through the doors of a colorful story an artist creates through an album. Out of New York comes Corbu, a transcendental electro rock duo giving listeners an escape of daily tasks with their debut album Crayon Soul.
Crayon Soul is full of their ambitious and experimental transcendental music. Their beats are perfect for the main Coachella stage and usable for an backdrop of a coming of age movie. Corbu mixes traditional instruments, natural sounds, and electronic samples to create an out of this world vibe.
The Dreams of Corbu
“Better Better Off” is a track that shows the moving effervescent mix of sounds perfectly balanced. It sounds likes a trippy desert rock anthem created from a dream.
Front man Jonathan Graves says he gets inspiration for his music from the dreams he has experienced. This waking conscious is a place where anything can happen and you can see things once lost or things once imagined. Graves’ voice carries “Better Better Off” but for a lot of the track the lyric-less swirling sounds leaves you walking in that dream alone.
“Battles,” another track off the album, comes with an animated music video taking you into the cartoon created by Graves. Corbu’s previously released songs “Promise Me” and “Believe the Lie” also have animated music videos but, like every dream, each video is a different colorful experience. Not every singer needs to have a wide range of octaves and band made Amanda Scott’s sweet vocals gives “Battles” just what it needs.
Do We Face Reality or Paint a New Picture?
Despite taking inspiration from science fiction and psychedelia, the album also pulls from the band’s real life experiences to create a body of work that is both otherworldly and deeply personal. Lyrics like “Im Fighting back / I’m fighting wars” from “Battles” can either paint a picture of battles fought in the real world or battles faced internally. Sometimes you don’t know which is worse.
Crayon Soul is a beautifully produced album with a perfect name as well. Crayons come in every color across the spectrum. This album shows the Corbu’s variety in creative talent, music, lyricism, and visuals. Like a crayon, Corbu’s new album paints a colorful picture we can’t stop looking at.
