How Elliott Smith inspired Loyle Carner: “His voice would quiver”
Thank god we no longer have the X Factor to endure. With crippling cost of living and uncertain geo-political climates, I don’t think watching Simon Cowell herald a butchered cover of Leonard Cohen would be a soothing antidote to an ever-troubling world. But musically, times have drastically changed, and despite the swirling uncertainty of real life, I feel grateful I’m a music fan living through a time of artistic morality. A time that allows the likes of Loyle Carner to flourish.
Because let’s face it, his vulnerability goes against the grain of what traditional outlooks perceive as stardom. He’s done away with the sort of toxic masculine energy that had laced much of contemporary hip-hop to that point and instead leant into honesty, delivered through a voice that consistently quivers on the edge of emotional breakdown. It’s inherently human, and combined with the brevity of his lyrical ability, has made an artist who quietly represents the social consciousness of our generation.
But on his latest album, Hopefully!, he laid it completely bare with his most muted composition yet, à la King Krule, which finds him leaning into the spontaneity of live instrumentation built off abstract ideas. Whereas the drums have traditionally driven a frantic pace for vocals, they’ve not dropped back to mid-tempo, allowing piano and electric guitar flourishes to create a more contemplative landscape.
It’s a truly beautiful album, and one I would argue is his best yet, but not solely because of how his band are playing, but also for how he interacts with them. His rapping decelerates into a drawl at times, and in sections, he timidly sings vocal melodies as a means of joining in the collaborative effort.
It’s a brave move for an artist that genre obsessives would be quick to limit as merely a rapper. Or is it? Because the essence of true authentic performance, even outside the lines of hip-hop, hasn’t been in perfection, but rather in truth. Something Carner reminded himself of when stepping out of his comfort zone.
“All my favourite singers can’t sing anyway,” he explained on the Sidetracked podcast. “The people I listen to are human, you know, and there are mistakes or they falter or whatever and when you see them live it’s different to how it is in a recording. That makes me feel like I can sing along, you know?”
He continued, referencing one particular artist as his muse within this realm: “Elliott Smith really can sing, definitely can sing, but I remember watching a lot of live videos of him after he passed away and like sometimes his voice would quiver because he was nervous and that makes me want to watch and wants him to win you know.”
Having watched Loyle Carner deliver a triumphant headline show on Glastonbury’s Other Stage this year, I can safely say I shared that feeling of wanting him to win. And not because he represented talent outside of my realms, or art I could simply marvel at, but rather for the fact that his imperfections represented something human, relatable and authentic.
