by: Joe Siess
Artist: Syrus
Album: Just Remember EP
Label: Unsigned/Indie
Rating: 3.8/5.0
Syrus absolutely has a sound he can proudly call his own. The Syrus sound has got that bigger than life, South Florida, palm trees and shimmering Miami skyline by the pool with the fat Cuban cigar thing going on.
Yes.
But the music is uniquely American in the sense that it brings many different elements together to create some kind of order.
Syrus’ sound and message are upbeat, and like I said, bigger than life. My favorite track on Syrus’ debut EP entitled, “Just Remember” is for sure “Book by its Cover Feat. Brianna”. I can almost envision the song performed live on stage at some big ass open air amphitheatre filled with howling fans under a blistering South Florida sun on a particularly humid, boozy, afternoon.
Syrus standing mid-stage, with the shades and the hat, rapping his verses with the bigger than life swagger. The suspended cameras gliding overhead, panning off into the smokey crowd. Clutching the mic, he’d chuckle off a couple of those characteristic Syrus laughs as Brianna slides onto the jumbotron. The laser wall starts beating to life as the cameras pan back around and the light crew scrambles backstage.
Syrus and Brianna move down the center of the stage and the crowd goes apeshit. People with contorted faces cast themselves over the railings in a molly fueled revelry. Drunks claw at their ankles as they sing in unison, “Da da da da da da da da da da!” Syrus crouches down and extends the mic towards the sea of bodies, “Let me here you say it!”
“Da da da da da da da da da DA DA DA DA” LIGHTS…FIRE…CONFETTI…BOOM!
Screeching and howling from a crowd 20,000 deep flanked by sweaty, beady-eyed cops from the Florida State Police Department desperately trying to hold back the rabble as Brianna goes, “I got the weight… of the world sittin’ on my shoulders, there’s no wayyyyyAYAYAYYY you can hold me down, baby I’s a soldier, I’m like…. Da da da da da da da da da! Let me here you say it!” BOOM! Cameras pan away… Lights. Laser wall…BOOM! And the crowd goes manic.
Well, at least that’s how I would envision things. But what do I know? I can only use my imagination. What I do know is that Syrus and his music is going places. He sometimes kind of reminds me of Pitbull but with a fresher energy. And then Brianna… Oh my god, Brianna… Yah girl.
In the end, if you want some of that feel good, bigger than life sound that used to dominate the wavelengths a few years back, then Syrus is where it’s at. His energy is exactly what we need in these twisted times.
In the wake of the Great Disgrace (Trump’s election), we need this kind of enegy. Syrus provides that rise above it all in spite of them sound, and we all desperately need to feel like it’s possible to win again. To be a shining beam of swaggering positivity in the face of mind boggling arrogance and impending doom is no simple task, but Syrus does it with grace and style.