Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear parties with Diddy, but he’s just as likely to be spotted at neighborhood cafes in Berkeley and Oakland.
But on Boo Boo, his fifth and best album, the South Carolina native is lonely.
“My baby got fed up with my ego,” he croons in “No Show,” a keenly-crafted electropop track that’s all wistful keys and pulsing tones that clang like guilt manifest. Boo Boo, which was recorded months before his breakup, finds Bear assessing the emotional aftermath of a relationship already on the outs. It’s his most intimate release to date.
“You say there’s a missing piece / Are you searching for both of us?” Bear sighs on “Labyrinth” over a chain of plodding bass lines and swooning electronic washes that never really seem to interlock. “Windows,” which sounds like a hollowed-out version of one of Drake’s dancehall experiments, is overlaid with the same shade of melancholy blue that washes his album cover.