Odds are you’ve never heard of Staten. Staten Island, maybe, but New Jersey based solo artist Staten? Probably not. With a single Bandcamp page, an incomplete discography scattered across various streaming sites, and a Twitter presence that is dwarfed by most personal accounts, he doesn’t exactly make himself known.
Nonetheless this hip hop and EDM influenced multi-instrumentalist has been posting beautiful melodies under that name since 2015, rejecting the notion of genre in favor of musical auteur theory. Every piece with his name on it feels uniquely his, whether rapped over trap beats or softly sung over acoustic guitar. Staten’s newest release, i don’t want to be alone anymore, is no different. Taking in the full gamut of his influence and history as a musician, Staten keeps up his improving track record and provides some of his best work yet on this piece (designated as a mixtape on his Twitter in the wake of a cancelled album).
“Part 2,” the opening track of the mixtape, wastes no time in introducing Staten’s diversity as a musician. Lyrical themes range from self-doubt, the separation of art and artist, and fear/hope for the future, smoothly rapped over a variety of soft piano-led beats and interlaced with an ironic voicemail sample telling the audience that “nobody is listening, nobody cares.” Where in past works, specifically last year’s The Unbroken Spirit of Myself, a phrase such as this would’ve been the crux of an entire song. In this mixtape Staten seems to be more comfortable in himself as an artist in the face of such criticism, or at the very least numb to the fact. The complete precedent for the tape is set from the first track, both musically and lyrically.
Tracks like “Flowers for You,” “Saturn,” and “pretty women” all lean heavier into the hip hop side of the project, with both bouncy, breezy beats and minimal guitar work to push the wonderful vocal melodies. The former two of those songs are very much love songs, which sets up the tape’s wonderful thematic back-and-forth of the beauty and anxiety of being in love. Tracks like “Tomorrow, With You” and “Fifth” rely primarily on more of a melancholic pop sound, with the first being an acoustic pop ballad and “Fifth” driven almost exclusively by piano and wonderful vocal harmonies.
Most of the rest of the tracks, “dreaming blue,” “for u, from _____,” and closer “Fi” all follow this dreamy, emo-inspired style Staten carves for himself throughout the tape without a huge emphasis on experimentation. Other than the instrumental “lucky to die alone,” the star track on the tape has to be “Loy’s Son,” which takes almost all of the elements discussed previous and combines them into one of Staten’s best songs to date. Opening with a sample discussing the joy of isolation, Staten plods through the 2 and half minute song with a steady and emotional vocal delivery about loneliness and uncertainty. It exemplifies all of Staten’s strengths while showing a great deal of restraint at the same time, as it is nowhere near bombastic.
The tape isn’t without its faults. With such a variety of sounds, it can come across as slightly unfocused, and some tracks don’t feel as polished or developed as others. The downtrodden mood that the lyrics convey certainly doesn’t give you anything to dance to either. That being said, the music on this tape feels way too genuine and creative to simply ignore. With this latest release, Staten cements himself as an artist that continues to grow and improve as he keeps writing. While the menagerie of styles may be off-putting to some listeners, the talent with which the artist manages each of these sounds displays something beyond genre and indicative of a true musician. Take a listen to the beautiful project down below.