Body Meat
Bookending Starchris, Body Meat's (Chris Taylor's) staggering avant-pop phantasmagoria of a debut LP, is a repeated statement of self-affirmation: "I am right here." For the upstate-NY-based singer, songwriter and producer, this is a mantra that he uses both to assuage panic and, with loved ones, to express devotion-assuring them that he is available to them even in difficult moments. Across its 13 tracks, Starchris sketches a protagonist moving through a series of internal struggles, exploring self-doubt, memory, trauma, and indecision. The hairpin emotional turns in the lyrics are acutely mirrored in the music, populated with backfiring dance beats, rippling Autotune hooks, volcanic surges of electronic noise, and more. By invoking simple phrases like "I am right here" in the midst of the upheaval, Taylor grounds us and draws us into the fiery emotional center of Starchris-a thesis statement for his chameleonic and uncompromising sound.