I've been listening to "Choices" by TROY, one half of the Montreal rap duo Frap Boyz, for a minute now. It's a woozy, whispered, atonal ballad with a sticky melody that feels like an elevated take on R&B's current obsession with minimalist autotune. The follow-up track, "Talk No More," falls in line. It starts off spare and restrained, mimicking the catatonic state that comes with a big breakup — the thematic territory TROY is working with here — before the beat drops and his tweaked, layered harmonies pick up speed. "I produced the record," TROY explained in an email to The FADER. "I really like making records that have drops." In the video for "Talk No More," premiering today on The FADER, that sonic climax is when TROY revs his engine and races through his city.
"This song means a lot to me," TROY added. "I wrote the song while going through a really rough breakup, to express how I would rather focus on my career instead of a girl. Everything got to a point where we were just fighting and arguing. We couldn’t communicate anymore. The lines were down. I realized that I am putting so much energy into conflict that it was affecting my output."
Thumbnail photo by Paul Labonte