James Blake sometimes feels like pop music's arch, ultra-serious older brother, floating above the scene with warbly torch songs that never quite come down to earth. He's left his ghostly prints on artists ranging from Beyoncé to Rosalía to Lil Yachty, and it's a testament to his influence how widespread his once novel, weightless style of production has become.
The producer and singer's second album is a freewheeling journey through clubs, bedrooms, and panic that's as cheeky and propulsive as it is heavy. Where her debut Forever, Ya Girl was affirmational and atmospheric, healing incense for working folks trying to get by, Hooke's Law is an accelerant. Over staggering tracks overrun with rhythms, melodies, and voices, keiyaA hurtles through the abyss and dares you to keep up.
Opening track Helynt Ryfeddol (An Incredible Ordeal) introduces a folk story about an old man drawn towards the purest music he has ever heard, sung by a bird, to which he listens until it stops. He returns home to find his house entirely changed and lived in by different people. Seven tracks later, the title track tells us that the bird was an angel, and that the man went away for 350 years, never to be seen again.