I wasn’t expecting much of Kacy Hill’s new single. However, the model turned singer/songwriter has delivered a bit of a curve-ball of the guilty pleasure kind with an unexpectedly beautiful song by way of the Stuart Price produced “Hard To Love”.
Take heed, because this likely to be a one-off event that I say this! In his part as mentor, Kanye West has done a fab job advising Kacy in the development of her sound. It’s not like Kacy’s ethereally evocative voice falls into the urban realm that Kanye himself leads. Nevertheless, steadily the changes have been coming in and bit by bit, sharpening and shaping up a style to suit has resulted in this very fine song indeed.
To mark the announcement of her forthcoming debut album “Like A Woman”, Kacy consecutively released two singles, “Hard To Love” and the album title track “Like A Woman”, yet they are both poles apart in sound. What is familiar to both is Kacy’s wistfully piqued vocals take on a gentle pop sensibility that starts off replicating a flourish of Chvrches Lauren Mayberry in its timbre before branching out with a hit of Debbie Harry styled vocal identity in its stride upon hitting the chorus.
Rather than being thought of as a song of two halves, “Hard To Love”, covers light and shade and dynamic range. It adds a particularly spellbinding veneer to the song. The stunning results of which, speak for themselves, in a brush with nostalgia, of pop and new-wave soundscapes. Kacy, Stuart Price and Kanye are completely on the right track to something significantly, noteworthy in the culmination of all their efforts here. What has happened here, is all ways glorious.