Terry Blade "Unmastered - The Demo Sessions." EP

This week I was passed an advanced copy of singer/songwriter: Terry Blade's upcoming EP titled "Unmastered - The Demo Sessions," a heartfelt and meditative five-track album that's a little tricky to pin-down genre-wise (in the best way). Blade actually makes a point of this in his bio, stating that "his work is grounded in his experience as a black queer artist."

Songs like "Not Right Now" and "Ms. Understood" show us an intimate guitar-oriented ballad type of mood, whereas "Rude" has a quirky dance-music quality that seems to have a little hint of musical theater. "Stone" is a rhythm-n-bluesy slow jam, and "untangled" sounds like Blades take on indie-rock. Though the songs show great variety in style, the whole work is tied together by Terry Blade's luscious baritone voice.

"Unmastered - The Demo Sessions," as the title might imply, has a decidedly lo-fi quality to it. This style of recording/songwriting makes for a very familiar sound - like Terry is your friend and he's showing you his newest work, and in a world of perfect pitch-corrected, loop-based, sterility, this is a welcome attitude. I think more than anything, what we long for in our modern age is a sense of individuality from our artists and Terry Blade has individuality for days. 

Find more about Terry Blade, and listen to his music here.