serpentwithfeet
GRIP SEQUEL
SECRETLY CANADIAN
The last time we looked in on alt-R&B loverman serpentwithfeet, the mostly electronic music maker had turned his already-sensual sound to something shadier, more spacious and tense, something more crisply carnal and serenely sexual than he had on past recordings with 2024’s GRIP LP. There, within the grasp of GRIP, serpentwithfeet was found “rhapsodizing about love in public and private spaces,” bringing sex to “Deep End” without moving too fast, and building within himself a safe harbor for the queer longing felt between he and his partner(s) on “Safe Word.”
What’s fascinating about GRIP SEQUEL’s six new tracks is the organic procession from its origin story. Like anyone falling in love and playing around with the boundaries of sex, serpentwithfeet brought the continued questions he had about intimacy and the ecstatic physical (and spiritual) ways to celebrate all those queries to song. With that, softly banging cuts such as “Writhing in the Wind” sound as if someone in this relationship screwed up and needs another chance to prove his devotion, or his willingness to go blindly—trustingly—to another level. “Pillow Talk,” then, could be the result of having those chances taken, expectations met, further busting down love’s walls, emotionally and physically.
GRIP SEQUEL features three remixes of tracks from its predecessor such as “Lucky Me” (now with strings) and “Damn Gloves” (now with Ty Dolla $ign), but new tracks such as “Wanderer” are reason enough to dig further into the GRIP arc. A Satie-like still life piano signature, a cloudy synth-sequence, and a rapturous singer in full-blown sensual quiver atop a quiet-storm melody that Smokey Robinson once likely heard in a dream all bring GRIP SEQUEL to a comfortable, embraceable close. I’m not sure where serpentwithfeet is going next, or if he’ll continue the sound and fury of his GRIP series—or even the relationships that got him to this point—but I know that I’ll listen intently.
