Though we’re situated firmly in the middle of the Eddie Chacon renaissance, his third solo LP, Lay Low, is yet another left turn in one of R&B’s most fascinating careers. After recording two full lengths with John Carroll Kirby, this new LP is a collaboration between Chacon and Nick Hakim, with the latter lending his homespun soul arrangements to Eddie’s tried and true method of singing very beautifully about very raw topics. The formula remains largely the same, with a few tweaks here and there to keep Chacon from ever coasting. His passion is nearly tangible, Hakim’s nimble production work offering all sorts of alleys and diversions for Eddie to explore.
Lay Low is mostly about Chacon losing his mother and the grief that has followed. Though his focus often reflects his personal experience, he also looks outward and sees much the same. The empire is collapsing, the shape of our world is undefined. Despite this anxiety, the record remains remarkably airy, as if Chacon is carrying the weight of our struggles so we can live at ease. It’s a balm, a remarkable feat considering how much grief Eddie expresses throughout the record. There’s beauty in him mourning a loss and carrying the burden such that we can be unencumbered while enjoying his musical gift. It’s very much what a parent would do.
We asked Eddie to break down each track on the new album, which you can check out below.
1. “Good Sun”
“Good Sun” is a song inspired by my mom, who passed several years ago. I wanted to speak of her optimism, but I also wanted to contrast it with the incredible emptiness I felt after she was gone. I loved her ability to frame everything as a teachable moment. She could quite literally find the good in anything life threw at her. I wanted to write just a couple of potent lines that described her way of being and sing them as a kind of mantra. A thoughtful meditation.
2. “Let You Go”
The Lay Low LP is largely about losing my mom and my journey through grieving. “Let You Go” is a melancholic song that speaks about how grief is all-consuming. There’s despair in this song. A pleading. Grief is inescapable and it demands you take a painful journey through it. When I listen to “Let You Go” now, I can feel that I was in a hopeless place at that time and had no idea where it would lead me.
3. “Empire” (feat. John Carroll Kirby)
I was thinking about how history has shown us that everything we build upon a poor foundation is doomed to crumble. It’s hard to escape the hopelessness people feel the last few years over the direction we’re moving in as a society. It’s about how difficult it can be to stay balanced amidst the divisiveness. It’s so challenging for me now to hear the sound of my own voice when I’m being bombarded on all sides with so much information. Sonically, I wanted the song to have a kick-ass feel to it. The song bridges the gap between my last record, Sundown, and this record. That’s why it felt just right having John Carroll Kirby on it.
4. “Lay Low”
I personally was at a point in my grief over losing my mom where I realized I needed to surrender my sadness. I was struggling. It occurred to me that she would want me to be happy. It’s a simple thought, but it was a big breakthrough for me. For me, the words “lay low” were a way of telling myself to go easy on myself. My mom would always say when I was down, “Be courageous, be brave, and take heart, son; let go, have faith, and all will be alright.” “Lay Low” seemed to capture the perfect sentiment for the record and the time. The song felt inherently suited to be the album’s title track.
5. “Birds” (feat. Nick Hakim)
“Birds” is about the zoomed-out perspective that aging and experience gives you. In some way, experience can make you feel as though you have a crystal ball. With time, you gain the ability to see how things will play out before they do. It’s a blessing and a curse, because you see things as they are as opposed to seeing things as you hope they would be.
6. “Let the Devil In”
I love the saying “Life presents its invoice.” It feels like so much that’s happening right now in the world is the result of decades of negligence. So when I say “We let the devil in” I’m saying we’re experiencing a kind of profound chaos as a result of not minding the store.
7. “End of the World”
I think it’s important to allow ourselves to feel sadness and melancholy. These emotions are communicating something to us. I try to just listen and learn when I feel this way. “End of the World” is me allowing myself to be where I am.
8. “If I Ever Let You Go”
I’m reflecting on loss here. I’m retracing my steps. There’s a time in grieving where you consider that your missteps have brought this misfortune upon you. It’s quite dramatic, but it happens when you’re desperate to understand why something so tragic has happened.
