Leave feels like a lesson in restraint. At a little over two minutes long, it is hard not to be left wanting more. The production is so minimalist - small touches that enhance the bruised, emotional vocal that is granted so much of the centre stage. And yet as subtle as the production work is, this never feels remotely close to a capella. This is a track where the production and vocal feel at one, almost as though they came from the same instrument, and yet they didn’t even come from a same mind.
Based in the Netherlands and growing up near The Hague, Chris Hue followed a passion for music to study electronic music production at the Rock Academy in Tilburg. His debut EP has been created together with fellow-Netherlands based singer-songwriter MAY BBY.
MAY BBY draws her inspiration from genres as diverse as electronic, alt R&B and hip-hop, but brings them together with a pop styling to her vocals.
All of which is to say, here we witness Hue treat MAY BBY’s vocal performance with an incredible deftness of touch that betrays a confidence all to rare, particularly in a track from a debut EP. Similarly, MAY BBY’s vocal feels mature beyond her 20 years.
The result is fragile, MAY BBY sounds scared of the outside and yet scared of what exists within her: the ability to be hurt, sure, but also the ability to hurt. Leave speaks to the inherent inconsistency in our experience - the perverse reality that we can both be afraid of being left by someone, whilst also being afraid of just what happens if you are the one to leave.
For me, few tracks trigger such an instant, indelible reaction as Leave. Check it out below: