Hi everyone, Brushthony Teethtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it is time for a review of this new Steve Lacy album, Oh yeah?

Here we have a new one from multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, Mr. Gemini Rights himself, Steve Lacy. Steve's third and highly anticipated album here, which I guess was four years in the making and quite the pause on his career there, considering how much of a breakout moment his last record proved to be. Because, despite Steve's roots in lo-fi and in underground music, there were tracks on this album that, really pushed him into the mainstream in an undeniable way. Especially "Bad Habit," which was a top ten hit on multiple charts globally and is also certified platinum in several countries.

And still, years later, it is crazy and surprising that a track this earnest and homespun could essentially get the same kind of spread that a perfectly engineered piece of chart-topping pop mystery meat does. But it's a new music era. Proven by the multitude of self-produced Steve Lacy type music that's out there these days. With guys like Malcolm Todd making the waves that he is currently, but I digress. The actual, real Steve Lacy is now back, and he's kind of making a show of it. He's been dropping singles from this record since back in 2025, and we've even recently seen the reformation of The Internet, the Odd Future-connected band where Steve originally made a name for himself as they just did a New York Times pop cast appearance. And it's clear they're going to have something new out very soon. It'll be their first album since 2018.

However, for the purposes of this review, we are primarily interested in Steve's music, though, obviously. Especially since I went into this album wondering if Steve would find some way to outdo his last record, Gemini Rights. Which, yes, had its highlights, had some amazing moments, but there were also a lot of tracks where I feel like Steve's amateurish charm got the better of him at least a little bit in terms of some of the songwriting being a little lacking and the overall album experience being kind of scant.

So yes, I went into Oh yeah? hoping to see Steve try to push it to the next level. And some of the singles in the lead up to this record definitely signaled some kind of change or something exciting. There was "nice shoes," which featured surprisingly clean production, a lot of neato dance breaks as well, and, of course, Steve's trademark unfiltered lyricism. And I thought this was a pretty solid single in and of itself, but the final version of this track on the album here gets extended out into this multi-phased nine-minute piece with more extended dance grooves, and, yeah, it sort of is Steve's most epic song to date, quite handily.

There was also "the feeling," another great single, and a track that's really in competition for my favorite Steve Lacy song ever. The production on this one is lush, it's spacious, it's enchanting, it's maybe his best ballad, and I love the production's wonderful combination of dream-pop aesthetics, but then also kind of like these lo-fi funk drums and filtered bass lines, too. "Am I your baby?" This track has about three or so catchy refrains held within its structure. It's like two or three good quality songs worth of hooks, written into one single track.

And then, of course, there was also "is it cool?" featuring SZA, the biggest feature on this record. And while this song may be kind of low-key and not have, maybe the pacing or pop factor that "Bad Habit" did, I still feel like this track is pure Steve Lacy through and through, at least in terms of its sweet, gritty, bedroom R&B vibes, and lyricism that is raw, self-effacing, lovesick, and kind of toxic, too. With Steve saying that you don't have to trust him to love him and that he doesn't even trust himself? Admitting he doesn't know how to love and his tendencies for self-sabotage? It's a song that is so desperately in need of therapy, but also, so desperately in need of a replay.

So look, just like Gemini Rights, Oh yeah? here has its share of highlights, some strong singles, too. But also like Gemini Rights, some of the later singles and a lot of the deeper cuts are much more of a mixed bag in terms of quality. And once again, the track list feels like I'm listening to a random array of songs versus a very cleanly and cohesively groomed album. Like Steve just had these tracks jangling around in his pocket.

Which would be fine if they were all of the same, consistent level of quality in terms of writing and production, but, they're not. For one, "pure colour" featuring Erykah Badu was a track that I was really excited to get my ears on, but the whole thing just kind of feels like this long, never-ending, psychedelic soul motif that has a decent start, but then goes nowhere fast until it kind of eventually is counting down its very uneventful demise.

And then there's also "show you me," which is a cutesy attempt at an acoustic ballad that, in my opinion, does not go over too well mostly due to Steve's lack of lyrical tact and poeticism. Kind of biting him in the butt as he's making reference to calling the love police and having coochie in his teeth, too. Of course, the track ends off with a bit of light negging and prodding, and some weird "meow" vocal harmonies that make me feel like Steve really didn't know how to end this one.

And the writing on "doom," in my opinion, isn't that much better. I do love the DIY rock riffs and drums on this one. It gives the track at least a little bit of a punch. But what I don't like is how wordy and forced a lot of the lyricism is. Steve doesn't even take the time to make sure his lines are fitting in every bar and ends up having to finish certain phrases on the one of the next line or even further. It's kind of like he's just rambling to a tempo without much regard for what the instrumental is doing under him. The song "nothing" is like a sleepy acoustic interlude that overstays its welcome, really lives up to its title and doesn't leave much of an impression.

And while I do love "lovesexdrugbomb" featuring the wonderful Cecile Believe, this other highlight here for me isn't enough to buoy the quality of the entire album. Especially given how underwhelming the intro and outro tracks on this thing are. There is sort of a glammy and psychedelic quality to them that reminds me of bands like The Flaming Lips, and while Steve does a decent job of capturing this vibe and essence, he doesn't really do anything all that interesting with it.

So yeah, at the end of the day, I just kind of feel like this album was, even more of a mixed bag than Gemini Rights. And sure, while it does contain some of my favorite tracks of the year, a few of them, a couple of solid moments as well, there's still very little reason to go back to the rest of the album, at least for me. Which is why I'm feeling about a strong 5 to a light 6 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Steve Lacy, forever.