This past weekend Aaryan Shah released the second installment of his two-part album The Arrival, laced in five featureless, breathtaking tracks from blatantly personal tunes like “To the Ends” to passionate odes like “Still Alive” to numbing conclusions like “Ruins” that put his accountability into perspective – it’s a brief but full body of work. Each record is daringly scripted. In “Ruins” he sings, ”I got no one else to use, and you got nothing to lose, so go on and use me too, ooouuu but don’t you mistake my loneliness for love, you know that you’ll never be enough…”
These raw reflections make for good music.
The 19-year-old, Los Angeles native vocalist, songwriter, self-taught pianist, and producer molds a solid and quality project from his intrepid lyricism to the stunning production. He lets listeners peer inside his thoughts, his realities, his past and his present.
In solemn records like “Disassociation,” he sings ,”…And I been lost for some time mmm and I just can’t get out my mind / ohhh I feel like I been trapped inside / I know I’ll never make it home, ohhh my demons won’t leave me alone but I have to live this life i chose..,” it’s this forthright lyricism that creates a therapeutic listening experience.
The lo-fi tendencies married with his diary-like lyricism and cinematic outcome separates this project from the modern-day hoi polloi and marks as a grand start to the year.