The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
The title of Leven Kali’s new EP — Let It Rain — suggests that there’s good to come out of welcoming unexpected change. More than once, the California singer summons the cleansing potential of a rain shower. On the title track, it is made literal when Kali calls to “Let it rain / Let it go,” and that image returns once again on “Tears of Joy,” when he sings about the beauty that follows a storm. In the two years since HIGHTIDE he's kept busy as a writer and producer with credits on tracks from Jazmine Sullivan (“Tragic”) and Beyoncé (“Virgo’s Groove”).
On the glittery “MELTING/HAD 2,” Kali makes it feel like its possible to become a new person by sweating the night away on the dancefloor. He’s propelled by an elastic bassline in the song's fist half, though the sturdiness of the drumming keeps him grounded. When the song breaks down into a sticky slow jam, the drums and rollicking bass become aligned in their mission. Now, they’re both trying to tie Kali down, but he’s already taken flight, his voice suspended in mid-air. He even makes his own addition to the “Are you high right now? / Do you ever get nervous?” canon with a blend of heartfelt (“Don’t it feel good when your energies match?) and horny (“Don’t it feel good when I’m grabbing on your ass?”) questions. It's like that rush of emotion you get when you don’t know what to say to that special someone who keeps popping up in your mind. Those questions are all funny, but mainly, it just feels good to hear Leven Kali’s voice again.
