Ivy Sole has no interest in being mysterious. Other musicians may savour secrecy in their work, but Sole – real name Taylor C McLendon – bares all. The Charlotte-born, Philadelphia-bred rapper writes lyrics that feast on the intimate details of her life, past and present. At any given time, McLendon wants you to know exactly what it was like; exactly how it felt. Even when that feeling was awful. “I want the listener to understand,” she says down the line from her home in Philadelphia. As if illustrating her fondness for clarity, McLendon speaks slowly and is prone to taking long pauses before an answer.
Their songwriting is a dense mix of memoir, social commentary, and soul-searching. “I’m the third born and first to survive,” she raps on the mellow track “Reincarnate”. “Little sister, a Pisces / she taught me how to survive.” Her sound is a polychromatic journey through soulful R&B and gospel-inflected alt-rap – a call-back to foregone greats like D’Angelo, and McLendon’s peers such as Noname and Jamila Woods. Meanwhile, the cadence and conviction of her delivery packs the punch of her spoken word roots. Candid is McLendon’s third studio album. The title suggests a singer who, with two releases already under their belt, is ready to get real. But “candid” has always been an apt descriptor of McLendon’s work. Even on her 2016 debut Eden there was that signature frankness. But on Candid, she ups the ante. On it, she reckons with her history and upbringing: the good, the bad, and everything in between.
