Vulnerability isn’t international to Xavier Omär. However together with his newest launch, HunnyMoon Mountain, the Texas-bred R&B singer, songwriter, and sonic storyteller scales new heights of heartache and therapeutic, inviting followers to climb each emotional cliff with him until they attain their peak.
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Out now by way of RBC/BMG and obtainable on all streaming platforms, HunnyMoon Mountain is an 11-track idea album that explores the difficult terrain of affection, heartbreak, and perseverance. At simply 38 minutes lengthy, the report is compact however expansive in feeling, layered with each soul and introspection.
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“The album begins on the midpoint of the mountain, when the going will get robust,” Omär explains concerning the mission. “However it’s the climb that defines the story. It’s a testomony to the battle for connection, even when give up looks like the better path.”
That battle performs out throughout standout tracks such because the haunting “Peace In My Thoughts,” the luxurious “Love Once more,” and the soul-baring “Afraid, Pt. 2,” a continuation of his 2017 fan favourite “Afraid.” Contributions from Jai’Len Josey, Divine Lightbody, Xenia Manasseh, and Samoht add depth to the album, whereas manufacturing from DJ Camper, J. Robb, Gareth Donkin, Southpaw Swade, and others gives sonic texture.
On “Take Her Love,” the album’s reggae-tinged, summer-ready single, Omär meditates on love misplaced by self-sabotage:
‘I advised my child I didn’t want her — that was silly. Misplaced my head like a two-seater with no roof. Now she gained’t let me again to apologize. She mentioned, ‘I don’t care to listen to any extra of your lies.’
Set towards a desert backdrop within the accompanying video, the visible gives a stark metaphor for emotional desolation. “It’s a visible reflection of self-sabotage in the course of love,” he mentioned.
A son of San Antonio with a musical basis in church and roots in drumming and manufacturing, Omär has all the time leaned into emotional reality, crafting songs that discover what it means to like, to lose, and to heal. However HunnyMoon Mountain required one thing deeper from him.
“So my query grew to become: What’s it like whenever you’re having a horrible time with any individual that you just wish to make it work with?” he mentioned throughout a listening occasion attended by BOSSIP. “What does that sound like over time? Is it all the time similar to, child, I like you, however we would not make it. Is that it? Is there nothing else to flesh out or to develop by?”
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Due to that inventive pressure, Omär is candid in noting that the album isn’t constructed round conventional bangers.
“I assume my solely remorse concerning the album is it’s not all the time songs for the membership,” he mentioned. “There’s not a complete lot of, that is loopy, run it again, so far as simply really feel good — as a result of I’m making an attempt to work by emotion. I’m making an attempt to work by these tough emotions. So it’s not all a drag, however it’s a story that works greatest collectively for certain.”
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Framed as a metaphorical theme park, HunnyMoon Mountain captures the highs and lows of partnership, full with religious detours, sharp turns, and emotional loops.
“The album begins on possibly halfway by your hike the place it simply begins to suck a bit and your legs harm and the air’s getting thinner and also you’re getting drained,” Omär mentioned at his listening occasion. “Ought to we flip round now and return down or will we hold going? That’s the place I begin the album. In order that’s why this album is just like the theme park in so some ways.”
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However when the mission was lastly achieved, catharsis didn’t arrive as anticipated.
“It felt very bizarre,” he admitted to BOSSIP. “I keep in mind feeling simply tremendous with all of the mixes, with all of the lead-up. Like, hey, we’re going to launch it. We’re going to show it in on at the present time. Then I gave it to the label and I simply was like frightened. I used to be similar to, what did I simply do? It felt very bizarre in comparison with different initiatives for some purpose.”
Time and listener suggestions have shifted that uncertainty into readability.
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“Now that it’s out and I do know that that is the story of so many individuals, it feels good,” Omär mentioned to BOSSIP.
That resonance is a part of why he considers HunnyMoon Mountain his greatest physique of labor up to now.
“It’s put collectively one of the best,” he mentioned. “It’s not essentially hit after hit after hit, that form of manner, as a result of I’m going to have a extra enjoyable album. I’ll let you know that. Even the stuff I’m doing now, it’s extra enjoyable. However I feel cohesively, storytelling and vary of sound, that is one of the best.”
And for Omär, whose breakout “Blind Man” launched listeners to his textured, genre-blurring vulnerability, the journey continues. One mountain, and one emotion, at a time.
