Rhye releases his new album, ‘Home’
Rhye releases his brand new album, ‘Home’
(Photo Credit: Emma Marie Jenkinson)“Right now, there is nobody quite like Michael Milosh” – MOJO“Cinematic…delicate spellbinder” – Uncut“‘Home’ is a welcome respite from reality and a shelter to hole up in for a while” – Independent ****
‘Home’ is the brilliant new album from LA-based songwriter and producer Michael Milosh aka Rhye, out today on Loma Vista Recordings. As presented on singles ‘Come In Closer’, ‘Black Rain’, ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Helpless’, every element of Rhye’s new LP is centered around the idea of home as the core of creativity and community. It’s familiar in its synthesis of propulsive beats, orchestral flourishes, piano ruminations and sultry, gender-nonconforming vocals, but never have they sounded more cohesive or alive…
Since the release of Rhye’s seminal 2013 debut ‘Woman’, Milosh mostly lived on the road, playing up to one hundred shows a year and decamping in Toronto, Montreal, Thailand, the Netherlands, Germany and Los Angeles. On the heels of some major life changes, including a new relationship with Genevieve Medow-Jenkins, he yearned for a more permanent space, a balm for the restless spirit and a place to simply be.
This has evolved into a series of live events called Secular Sabbath, centered on consciousness-raising ambient music, meditation, and community (recently broadcast from the couple’s actual home throughout the pandemic). Acting as a space for Milosh’s improvisational experimentation with voice and sound, Secular Sabbath in turn inspired much of the work on this new Rhye record, creating a fluid correlation between music and home.
Listen to ‘Home’ HERE
‘Home’ was previewed last year by ‘Helpless’, which relayed love in its most intimate and romantic form over slinky R&B pulses, plus the acclaimed single ‘Beautiful’. ‘My Heart Bleeds’, the last song written for the album, speaks to the collective pain of 2020, with the record at large allowing Milosh – a gear head with a carefully-curated arsenal of sonic references – to show an attention to detail that is prominent on moments like ‘Black Rain’, which launched alongside an incredible video featuring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. Here are ideas Rhye has honed since childhood, when he studied cello under his father. “My dad, a really sweet, gentle and inclusive guy, was into this idea of feeling something through playing just one note without a melody, that exchange of energy. We would talk about how music doesn’t mean anything if you can’t make the listener feel it.” Suitably every element of ‘Home’ is intentional and meant to reverberate on a higher extra-sensory plane.
‘Home’ is bookended by celestial cantos sung by the Danish National Girls’ Choir, who Rhye performed with at a landmark concert in Denmark in 2017. The choir flew to LA to record with him for one day. It’s reflective of Rhye’s own experiences singing in choir as a boy, his entry point to the path that has informed his distinctive vocals. “I’m always trying to always accomplish musical goals that are connected to the way I listened to and interact with music as a child,” Milosh says. The sentiment also underscores a broader, less obvious, but no less important theme echoed through his new record: No matter where life takes us, we can always go home.
Home Tracklist:
01. Intro
02. Come in Closer
03. Beautiful
04. Safeword
05. Hold You Down
06. I Need a Lover
07. Helpless
08. Black Rain
09. Sweetest Revenge
10. My Heart Bleeds
11. Fire
12. Holy
13. Outro
‘Home’ Cover Artwork
Listen to ‘Home’ HERE
Watch ‘Come In Closer’ HERE
Watch ‘Black Rain’ HERE
Watch ‘Helpless’ HERE
Watch ‘Beautiful’ HERE
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