They fade in from the distance — a booming drum, a driving guitar — setting up the engine of the rhythm on “Control,” the first song from New Haven-based musician RØY’s new EP Thoughts in Sound. Within seconds they’ve arrived and are rising in urgency, only to stop on a dime to let the voice come in over nothing more than the hum of an echo and a couple finger snaps to keep the pulse.
“Safe and sound,” RØY sings. “Five years ago I never would have thought that / I lost my head and heart and never thought that I’d get them back / Some days do you feel that you’re no more than flesh and bone? / Some days do you feel that you’re lost like a soul without a home?” The drums, bass, and guitar have come back in, driving the vocals harder. The lyrical content gets a little more desperate; as the title half-suggests, it’s about losing control. But the music is filled with determination. Whatever control the New Haven-based RØY — a.k.a. Roy Halim — talks about losing, he’s getting it back.
Thoughts in Sound, Halim wrote to the Independent, is “inspired by a year of travel, love, landing in a dark space, and re-emerging stronger than before.” As “a first-generation American and the gay son of Muslim Albanian immigrants,” he might be tempted to “feel like the quintessential outsider.” However, in his music he seeks instead to “creat[e] a sense of community, providing inspiration and connectedness for his listeners.” He and his backup band are currently setting up a small tour in May with the EP as a calling card.
From the sound of Thoughts in Sound, RØY is ready. The jaunty rhythm of “Hike Hills” allows for a anthemic chorus and a quick dive into a hip hop-inflected verse. “BAD” shows Halim can pull down a straight-ahead rocker with a small portion of rapping on the side. And “Levitate” moves sinuously from texture to rhythmic texture, whether it’s sparse drums and throbbing synths or crunchy guitars and crashing cymbals. All the songs are united by Halim’s knack for simple, catchy melodies, and he has the voice to deliver them, honest and clear, with a little grit around the edges.
Halim also makes room for the ballad-like “Buzz,” which — despite its name — is a dose of sugar. A warm, bubbling acoustic guitar and sweet violins create the right mood for Halim to leaven the urgency and desperation in his lyrics with a little playfulness. “I’ve got an addiction / You are my prescription / Book me into rehab / I know I’ll have a relapse,” he sings, before layering his own voice, sometimes in crooning falsetto, to make a soft chorus of voices, swooning and romantic.
“You’re that kind of buzz,” he sings. With Thoughts in Sound, RØY is creating its own kind of buzz, too.
