It is the most fully developed track, but more importantly the bliss seems to draw her into easing smoothly into a higher register.
“Bed Peace” is powered by a bouncy, bright guitar strum that blossoms into a chorus of fluttering keyboards, radiant backing vocals, and screwed vocals that bob and weave with Aiko’s own singing. Instead there is a glazed-over blankness to her delivery that does these bare-by-design songs little favors. Aiko has yet to display this ability, and Sail Out leaves you searching for emotion where it isn’t. Vocalists like Cassie or Aaliyah were able to convey a spectrum of emotions within a limited vocal range, summoning strength or giddiness or compassion when necessary. It is here where Sail Out is likely to leave some cold. Those vocals are often emotionless Aiko sings with a medicated distance, never getting too up or too down even when she sings of despair. The production-handled by Fisticuffs, a duo that worked heavily on Miguel’s first album-is downtempo and unobtrusive, with percussion coming from drums that are no louder than a snap or a clicking lighter and keyboards that offer a soft bed for Aiko’s vocals. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that there is also a distinct numbness to Sail Out. On “WTH” she steps back from a sputtering relationship and realizes that she "might've got way too high" and on “The Vapors” she links drugs and sex, repeatedly singing “Can I hit it again?” On “Bed Peace” she sings of a desire to wake up in the middle of the day and light a blunt, but the idea of intoxication is a metaphor she returns to often. Regardless, there is an unavoidable longing at the heart of this EP, one that seems connected to her fixation with weed. One issue she doesn’t have is establishing a clear point of view: on Sail Out, she sings exclusively of contentment being just out of her grasp, be it because a relationship is fractured emotionally (“3:16 am”, “WTH”) or by distance (“The Vapors”), or because she has to continue with the motions required of her profession (“Bed Peace”). Though it is easy to grasp the broad appeal of Aiko’s music, it’s harder to decipher whether the songs are more appealing than the mere atmosphere they create. Sail Out is Aiko’s first release with the world watching. But in that time she’s put out only a single full-length, the 2011 mixtape Sailing Soul(s), which nonetheless featured contributions from Kendrick, Drake, Miguel and Kanye West. Aiko has been around the industry for almost a decade, signing a record deal with Epic as a teenager and eventually surfacing on a number of Black Hippy projects, a pairing that makes perfect sense when you consider that Kendrick Lamar would eventually build a track out of a Janet Jackson sample. If you lie in bed at night in a pitch black room aglow only with the light of an iPhone, Aiko’s voice is the one that might feel the most appropriate.īut being asked to help solidify the mood of a song is an altogether different task than carrying an entire project. (She is also currently opening for Drake on his American tour.) Despite not being a megawatt name, her inclusion on Nothing Was the Same almost felt like a foregone conclusion: no current vocalist-male or female- better accentuates the damp throb of Drake’s music. In 2013 she has starred on Big Sean’s hit single “Beware", snaking her way through the track’s ample empty space, and on Drake’s “From Time" joining Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna as the only women to appear on any of his albums. But more importantly, as the sound of popular rap has continued to take on a form (in mood if not always in sound) mutated from Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, Aiko’s malleable and far from overpowering voice has become a frequent accompaniment. And it is true: the sustained interest in this sound has likely contributed to her rise, which culminated in Sail Out debuting in Billboard’s Top 10 debut. It is even easier to see how the recent adoration for these singers-not just from British boys clicking through Logic, but also from stars like Drake (who has an Aaliyah tattoo) and Chris Brown-may have provided a perfect incubator for an artist like Aiko, whose music attempts to hit you in precisely the same way.
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