Does Giveon’s ‘Give or Take’ Give?
The ‘Heartbreak Anniversary’ crooner delivers a debut album that resonates with even the stiffest of hearts.
The deep and harmonic resonation of his signature smooth baritone vocals, the potent strength in his ability to sing with immense soul and sincerity over usually soft productions, so as to not distract from heart-tingling stories on love, and all it comes with — twice Grammy-nominated rising star Giveon, whose debut studio album Give or Take, retains the allure and confidence found in his debut EPs, ‘Take Time’ and ‘When It’s All Said and Done’, and delivers an effective experience that could easily see him occupy the Frank Ocean-sized hole in our lives.
On Ocean’s 2016 triumph Blonde, the equally brilliant Self Control, represents Ocean’s ability to masterfully write with poetic brilliance, each line painting visceral and vivid imagery, immersing you into entire realities and subjecting you to heart-pulling twists and turns in its narrative and genre-defying production. Ocean is an obvious inspiration for Giveon’s style as he typically aims for the same heights Blonde and its predecessor Channel Orange achieved in executing their narratives.
Since Like I Want You and Heartbreak Anniversary, two EP standouts, Giveon has found his narrative strength in thematic material surrounding love and heartbreak. He is convincing enough in his roles as both the hopeless romantic who has persevered through heartbreak and hopes on finally finding the right one on Another Heartbreak, and the toxic lover who shrugs off his lover’s interest with a cold “too bad” on Scarred, sung with a sorrowful vulnerability that even when he thinks he’s sounding heartless, he’s fooling no-one.
‘Far from love and know it’s because / I Sing what I’ve been through on these instrumentals’ is an introspective look at his own understanding of his encounters on This Will Do, a track that beautifully illustrates the album’s journal-like approach to its lyrical honesty and transparency — the entire album based around the concept of having conversations with his mum, whose voice is heard consoling and chatting at various moments on the record — point is, Giveon is an open book letting us in on all his truths and hurts.
On the bouncy, acoustic-aired Lost Me, he sings ‘We can kiss, we can touch and do it often / But if you’re here looking’ for love, that’s when you lost me’ with a blunt shrug, declaring his independence from finding love and enjoying the casual fun he’s having instead.
He impresses with the ability to convincingly switch moods at any time, his story refusing to follow cohesion or a fixed structure — instead it runs with the same unpredictability of love, and there’s comfort in this chaos. Giveon manages to capture simplicity and relatability in his music on this record, from the beautiful Lie Again, where his voice ascends and descends with vibrancy throughout, singing of his desire to be kept in the dark from his lover’s lies, to his sensual ode to falling back in love again on the dreamy Make You Mine, his vocals often highlighted by the minimal productions like this, slipping in trap and soul influences across the album.
Give or Take is an effective debut, showcasing Giveon’s strongest assets — his voice and his perspective. There will be plenty of time for bigger productions, bigger riffs & runs, and perhaps even a feature but the record stands as a confident introduction, presented by an artist comfortably taking things at his own pace. The record doesn’t sit too well for instant chart toppers or viral trends and in fact loses its intimate nature when listened to with haste. Patience and your undivided attention are the only two things you need to allow Giveon to submerge you into his emotional rollercoaster of an album that manages to boldly stands out for its relatability and refreshing sensitivity.
