Okay Kaya "SAP" LTD Opaque Tan LP (2022)

Details: Okay Kaya "SAP" LTD Opaque Tan LP (2022, Jagjaguwar). Limited edition pressing of Okay Kaya sophomore release, SAP, on opaque tan vinyl, released on Jagjaguwar. Release tracks include guest collaborations with Taja Cheek of L’Rain and Adam Green of The Moldy Peaches.

Description: SAP first grew from the first single “Spinal Tap” about Kaya wandering in Berlin, tree-touching. “Sap reminds me of the bodily functions I need to remember to do, like sleep. One might say it ‘resinates.’” The album was further inspired by Ketamine Therapy which is discussed in “The Inside Of A Plum.” Kaya explains, “The doctor said this treatment grows literal physical branches in your brain.” As she experimented with ego death, the subject of her song “Jazzercise,” Kaya found herself writing in the voices of fictional characters she’d encountered in other people’s stories. In ‘Jolene From Her Own Perspective,’ she imagines Dolly Parton’s nemesis responding to her song. In ‘Origin Story,’ Kaya writes as a mythical goddess frustrated with her creation myth. In ‘I’ve Spent Forever Planning A Crisis,’ Kaya responds to Cassavetes’ film A Woman Under The Influence writing from the perspective of the story’s children.

Okay Kaya’s investigations of mind-body come along with sexy dance beats, unpredictable interlocking synths, delicate soft guitars, and close-to-the-mike R&B whispering. But Kaya likes her falsettos cracking and her soul-inspired hooks careening wildly, a beautiful chaos that somehow fits together.

When she returned to New York, Kaya was excited to collaborate again, to get friends to “bless the record.” She invited friends to Gaia Studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to sing or play an instrument. Most songs on the album unfold with guest performances from artists as varied as deem spencer, Taja Cheek of L’Rain, and Adam Green of The Moldy Peaches.

Just as the recording process began with isolation and ended with friends, SAP starts with the internal and leads outside to romance, to lovers who serve as funhouse mirrors, reflecting Kaya back to herself from different angles. In “Pearl Gurl” Kaya harmonizes with her multi-tracked second self and sings her uncertain conclusion: “If love is not the answer, it’s one hell of a question.” 

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. Mood Into Object Personified
A2. Jolene From Her Own Perspective
A3. Origin Story
A4. Jazzercise
A5. Pathologically Yours
A6. Spinal Tap
A7. Inside Of A Plum
A8. Rorschach

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. In Regards To Your Tweet
B2. Dep. Chamber
B3. Pearl Gurl
B4. The Lesson
B5. I've Spent Forever Planning A Crisis
B6. Like A Liver
B7. Weltschmerz