Most of the time Charlton Howard is singing, he’s screaming. His ragged, adolescent voice has been frequently and correctly compared to the mournful cry of Post Malone, the defining sound of zillennial heartbreak for the better part of a decade. Unlike Post Malone, who sings through a glazed, pilled-out fugue, Howard – who records as the Kid Laroi, a nod to his Kamilaroi heritage – sounds as though he’s always pushing himself to the furthest possible limits: his voice strains, the volume peaks and the spectrum of emotions he’s trying to convey melts into toxic agony.
I love this aspect of the Kid Laroi’s music: it’s what separates him from the dozens of other Post Malone acolytes populating popular music and what makes his hits so successful on a musical level. The electro-pop song Stay, his biggest hit to date, is a Justin Bieber collaboration that always feels surprisingly fast (I once heard Fox FM play it twice in a row, I assume because it only feels like the first half of a song to listen to it once), in distinct contrast to the sludgy slowcore hocked by Billie Eilish and so many other gen Z stars. The Kid Laroi sounds as though he’s tripping over himself trying to get to the finish line, kind of like the Veronicas in their heyday.
