A song that starts with its vocal front and centre, I Know takes the best part of a minute to unveil its true colours. And when it does, those colours are luminous... this is a song that could stand on the strength of Andrea’s vocal performance, but instead it embellishes them with production that conveys the feelings the vocals do.
The fit between a song’s story and its sound is always the key to the best music, in my opinion. It is for that reason that I can get behind vocal processing when Drake and The Weeknd apply it to vocals, but not when it is applied without thought, as a crutch. Those R&B stars rose to fame with music that dealt in shame and obsession, and those vocal effects existed as if they were wanting to anonymise themselves — sins admitted within the relative safety of the confession booth. Yet I can’t stand to hear them applied so damn often these days, without any apparent thought, mimicking that sound but none of the emotion.
I Know is a love song that quivers with the excitement of an instant attraction, and Andrea worked with composer and producer Aleksandar Masevski to bring that feeling into the music itself. As it transitions from its slow and considered opening, I Know opens up like a bird unfurling its wings, drum & bass percussion and big rave-like synth stabs and acid synths lifting the track to create the kind of transcendent energy that we feel in those moments of weightlessly falling in love.
Andrea’s sound draws on her experience as a child in Harlem, surrounded by gospel, soul and R&B during a trip her parents took for a year whilst she was five. Upon her return to her native North Macedonia, she was hooked on music. Here on I Know, Andrea channels her musical roots whilst elevating them with modern accents, having been encouraged to invest in her talent by Masevski.
Check out the Premiere of I Know below: