Kyle Dion puts out his best work yet channeling the bare, sultry, and complicated love we all get caught in on If My Jeans Could Talk
Release date: January 19, 2024 | Position Music | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Stream/Purchase
This has been a long time coming – we’ve needed to talk about Kyle Dion for some time now, beyond the little shoutouts on other features we’ve done. Starting with 2019’s SUGA, he’s proven to be as much as a disciple of classical R&B and sexy soul as much as building his own way through it all. You can hear equal parts Silk Sonic, Whitney Houston, and Prince or even Michael Jackson among others with his airy vocals and playlist-bound instrumentation that really puts a shine in your step. Now, with mini-album/EP If My Jeans Could Talk, he’s pared things down which has only strengthened his sound and its staying power by saying more in half the time.
Right off the bat, I must say that “Let’s Get It On” is one of the best songs I’ve heard in this realm in quite some time. Released last year as an advance single for this project, it’s an expertly crafted track that isn’t breaking any new barriers, but builds existing ones up to new heights when it comes to a tastefully sexy affectation and songwriting. I love the instrumentation which is just as much fun with or without clothes on, and you can hear how well Dion’s really mastered his own voice over the years. There’s almost always a lustful breathiness to it, but he maneuvers it so well, pulling it back during key crooning moments or exuding more power to project big choruses that he loves to do. And that’s just the beginning.
Just as good as “Let’s Get It On” is “Put Your Hand in My Pocket”, a lovely, sweet ballad with slow and low instrumentation that practically begs to be the soundtrack to your next tryst. I adore the synths that layer in the song before the final hook – the sound like something ornate and throwback that Alan Palomo might use in similar songs. It’s a total mood and makes me feel like I’m melting on a bed of velvet. Fuuuuuuuuuck. “Hang Me Out to Dry” tackles a similar mood, but it’s more distraught and heartbroken, navigating the uncertainty after fiery, passionate nights and being tired of the cycle of emotions that come with that. It was a goal of Kyle Dion‘s to get more vulnerable and personal with If My Jeans Could Talk – mission accomplished with this song as he wears his heart on his sleeve.
“Boyfriend Jeans” has warbly bass and other instrumentation that blooms like a flower as the song progresses. This is soul to the bone and Dion’s register gets as high as it can for the hook where he’s asking a lady to break it off permanently with her on again/off again guy. It’s less homewrecker and more love triangle, and nonetheless it shows a pretty relatable side of having someone you wanna be with and trying to… tastefully and respectfully get them to move on from their current situationship that keeps y’all from flourishing. Not that I have experience with that!
“XYXY” kicks up the soulful psychedelic funk as it weaves a tale of queer love, or at least that’s how I’m reading it. XY are of course the two chromosomes that determine the sex (not gender!) that we binarily associate with men, and the lyrics are quite telling as well – ‘I’m happy you helped me find a part of me, another life (XY, XY)/My heart is for anybody, every body, shape and size‘ – and if that wasn’t enough, he just flat out says ‘I’m so fuckin’ over you, I hope I find another guy‘ later in the song. Regardless of intent or meaning, “XYXY” just makes me smile and it’s a wonderful way to close out this EP.
Really, honestly, this feels like Kyle Dion swinging for the fucking fences with his well thought out take on a very, very established sound. His aesthetic is pretty just like his music, and If These Jeans Could Talk captures a progressive modality of the genre(s) that balances with Olympic level skill on the old and new – not hackneyed, not derivative. For as much as I liked SUGA and SASSY, he’s really, honestly, in his bag here and I want more of this exact thing from him in the future if at all possible.
For as cool as it is to see him collab with someone like Ja Rule, Kyle Dion ran If My Jeans Could Talk all on his own (outside of producers and writing partners of course), no features and platinum in my heart at least. This felt like a deeply personal thing for him to do so it made sense, right? And the best part is it made me feel vulnerable in turn as I navigate my own increasingly complicating love life. This is a project you can just vibe along to – drive with your love with the top down, lament your singleness (it is near Valentine’s Day as I write this after all), dance with a stranger (consensually), swipe right on MFs on your dating app of choice, or just listen to the details and layers in literally every song and bask in the brilliance. No matter what you do, I’m hard-pressed to think of a better companion. Even more best of 2024 material for that ass.
