It was 12:27 p.m. on March 6 when I heard Shot Down. The song came out of random on Spotify. I was listening to Bibi Bourelly's new album on repeat - or at least I thought I was - when this unknown beat and dreamy voice started coming out of my speakers: We've been here before, surrounded in the cold / You take me to places I've never known.
I looked at my phone's screen and it said I was playing the first album of a guy called Khalid. I went to his page and pressed the shuffle bottom. I knew my day was over as soon as Angels started playing: I've been seeing angels in my living room / That have walked the sun and have slept on the moon / Covered in the fragrance of their own perfume / Telling me the stories, stories coming true.
The alternative hip-hop/ R&B vibe reminds me of Frank Ocean peculiar musical style but sounds closer to something I have never heard before. He sings every verse as if they were taken from the first draft of love letters he has never sent. It's honest and relatable material. It's about love and pain and trying to handle both when life doesn't give you enough time to learn how.
The 19-year-old singer uses the theme "Love in the 21st century" to share his experiences with the audience. In Location, he sings I don't wanna fall in love off of subtweets so / Let's get personal while pleading his lover to forward her location so they can focus on giving each other a chance.
In Saved, we hear about how a relationship ended because of all the loss that comes when loving someone from a distance. There is growing you can't do with a lover on your side, but letting someone go doesn't mean keeping them away from you forever: So I'll keep your number saved / 'Cause I hope one day I'll get the pride to call you / To tell you that no one else / Is gonna hold you down the way that I do.
Khalid's voice is sour and soft. When I listen to his album it feels like I am laying on a cloud drinking burned coffee with honey out of my late grandfather's mug, and there is nothing I could love more at that moment.
Spotify randomly introduced me to Khalid. That's why I don't consider my subscription to be "an unnecessary waste of money." I needed Khalid's music in my life and Spotify knew it and gave it to me. So thank you, Spotify. And thank you, Khalid. I feel like I can finally breathe.
