Stream: Gallant, ‘Sharpest Edges’

S.Lo on June 25th, 2019

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Chris Gallant has shared a new tease for the followup to his Grammy-nominated “Ology” album. Produced by Stint, “Sharpest Edges,” out now via Mind of a Genius/Warner Records, is a punchy tune that dances with the rhythms of the 27-year-old’s verse. A bit kinky and all metaphor, like sharply manicured nails grazing down the whole of one’s back, the tune harks back to “Purple Rain”-era Prince and Sheena Easton, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. Gallant tap-dances in perfect soprano, “Now I / find myself trying to save myself by nearly killing myself every time I get closer to you, babe / Is that lipstick or blood on those lips? / The berry is sweeter on your darker side / And each time we do it you’re closer to mine.” It’s perhaps Goth wrapped in New Jack Swing.

Of the track, the singer-songwriter says, “There are two sides to every coin—a bunch of caskets buried underneath every vacation home. I had problems with depression for a long time because even though you get to choose your own outlook on life, it’s hard sometimes to ignore the bad shit, the mistakes you made and the things you could have done better. It’s easier to admit the world is full of sharp edges—and to make a goal to have as many close calls as you can.”

Looking forward, Gallant did one better for communities throughout the U.S. by featuring in Jamie N Commons and Skylar Grey’s cover of Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” on the 25th anniversary of the song, partnering with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to release a video (below) for National Missing Children’s Day last month which utilizes geotagging technology to match where viewers watch from and profiles of missing children from their local area.

Gallant next performs at the AfroPunk festival in Atlanta (October 12-14) and the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas (September 20-23).

||| Stream: “Sharpest Edges”