Patience is a virtue, and Delicate Steve keeps his audience practicing this virtue within some of his songs in his latest album Till I Burn Up, as the songs start with a baseline cadence and continue to build and develop as song continues. This album exemplifies his creativity in employing electric sounds in conjunction with his guitar melodies in unique ways in each piece without using much, if any, repetition. Till I Burn Up is a celebration of his talent and and versatility as a musician. He never sticks to one type of melody in the album. Delicate Steve, a New Jersey based artist, is known for his experimental style of music in which he synthesizes guitar, keyboards, and percussion to create melodies. Till I Burn Up acts a conduit for the listener into Delicate Steve’s thought process. As each song progresses, the listener continues to learn more about the artist’s direction and preference of choice in style.
Non-vocal artists carry a heavy burden with every stylistic choice they make. In his album, Delicate Steve shows his appreciation of this responsibility by carefully crafting each song to evoke specific emotions. In the song “We Ride on Black Wings,” Delicate Steve begins the song with heavy and long alternating strums of bass before starting the four-key melody that it builds off of. This stylistic patience keeps the audience engaged with the artist, summoning a somber feeling of acceptance and calmness. Delicate Steve integrates light shaker and high-hat to create amplify this slow motor in this song. The song “We Ride on Black Wings” induces an emotion that is largely reminiscent of past experience and acts as a vessel for the listener to access memories of worry-less times. Not only does Delicate Steve further showcase his malleable skill as an artist, he also displays a somber side to his music. In the fashion of a true musician, Delicate Steve made Till I Burn Up keeping his audience in mind by providing different avenues in each song to feel feelings of appreciation and confidence.
Most of Till I Burn Up has the creates a similar feeling of control and confidence. Delicate Steve’s choices in instrumentation to propel each cadence evoke these feelings. His use of the electric guitar as the primary instrument in a vast majority of the songs on the album bolster the emotions Delicate Steve is aiming to illicit. In the song “Ghost”, Dangerous Steve only uses the electric guitar in the framework of the song and uses it in sprinkles to annunciate specific portions of the melody. In “Ghost“, Delicate Steve uses sounds reminiscent of an old gaming console to create a summer-like vibe. Whereas in the song “Vacant Disco,” Delicate Steve introduces the song with a hip-hop-style beat before changing gears of the song into a more technological song and then to a guitar driven piece.
Till I Burn Up by Delicate Steve is an album for people looking to experience emotion through music without being pushed into directions by the artist. His music allows enough subjectivity that listener feels autonomy over their interpretation of songs, while also fulfilling the broad emotions Delicate Steve strives to pull from the listener.