On the ambitious debut album Burial at Sea, Atlanta-based artist Rex Novi parallels the feeling of being lost at sea with the navigations of Black identity in America. Ten years in the making, the record stretches hip-hop into operatic and orchestral territories, following a character’s ill-fated adventure through restless, genre-bending experimentation toward a state of cathartic stillness. The artist caught our ears with the fantastic Prologue EP last year, and Burial at Sea enamors as a meticulously crafted follow-up that stirs in its dynamic stylistic prowess and continuous knack for melody.
Opening the album with heartfelt allure, “Heaven Haven” audibly captures an ocean setting with sounds of waves crashing and seagulls frolicking. A riveting vocal presence ensues, projecting with an operatic ferocity like a siren’s beautiful, tempting call. The lyrics play as a remake of a poem from Gerard Manley Hopkins entitled “Heaven Haven: A Nun Takes the Veil.” That work depicts a nun’s yearning to escape personal tumult — the equivalence of a stormy sea — and fits well within the context of one’s struggles in general, conveyed throughout Burial at Sea from the artist’s perspective, of navigating America as a Black man. The poetry combines with bursting orchestral power for a thoroughly resonating commencement.
“I get lost on the high seas, pray you will find me,” a soulful vocal lead emanates on subsequent track “The Odd at Sea,” framing those aforementioned struggles with greater specificity and modernity — both in the dynamic vocal tones, from pop to hip-hop, and debonair backing instrumentation, enveloping from trickling guitars to lush strings. Blaring brass emerges in the final minute with especially cinematic gusto. “Black Water” continues the run of engrossing, theatrical ocean-set narratives. “They keep killing us all, polluting our homes,” the vocals lament, shifting quickly into a foreboding synth buzzing and fervent hip-hop delivery; Burial at Sea consistently dazzles in its eclectic tonal range, and “Black Water” is especially savvy in its traversal from initially smooth pop to grimy Clipse-esque hip-hop invigoration.
Another standout track, “Siren Song” consumes with an initial contrast of late-night synth dreaminess and expressive vocal samples, eventually finding cohesive entrancement in combination of serene lead vocals, glistening keys, and playful rhythms. “Girl I need you, right now,” the vocals let out with smitten charisma, basking in starry-eyed warmness. Beholding one as a “color I had not seen before” alongside the spacey synth tones makes for an impactful proclamation into wordless, spine-tingling vocal harmonies. Also delighting is epic finale “Aqueous Transmission,” a tastefully atmospheric cover of the Incubus track. Its water imagery and hypnotic instrumentation prove thematically apt within the album’s context, free-flowing with ardor and caressing strings — “further down the river.” Burial at Sea is a cathartic, captivating tour-de-force of an album from Rex Novi.
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