Casey Thai Luong, otherwise known as “Keshi” is an Asian American pop singer who
made his debut in the world of popular music with his single “Over U” in 2017. Since then he has grown in popularity, writing his first full album titled “Gabriel” in March of 2022. Though the singer has not won any awards, he has amassed a large following of 9.1 million monthly listeners. The singer may only grow in popularity after his new album “Requiem,” was released earlier this month. The album consists of 13 tracks including songs such as “Like That,” “Texas”, and of course “Requiem,” which shares its name with the album.
From a musical standpoint, Keshi’s newest album is beautifully done. There is a certain softness in the melody of the songs and a smoothness in the singer’s voice that makes listeners feel as if they are comfortably falling into the music, as it envelops the mind and satisfies the ear drums. The rhythm of the songs are catchy. It is more than fair to say that after listening to Keshi’s album a few times, one might have it stuck in their head for the rest of the day or even the remainder of the week. The tone of the songs are similar to that of songs written by other Asian American artists such as Mitski and Raveena Aurora and can best be described as euphoric, evoking a strong emotion tied to pleasure. Listening to just the melody, rhythm and tone of the songs makes one struggle to not dance or bop along to the songs as it is clear that Keshi is very musically gifted.
Though Keshi clearly has God given talent when it comes to the musical side of his songs, his weakness lies in his lyrics. Though the lyrics are well thought out with clever metaphors, the theme of the lyrics themselves reflect a certain level of brokenness in the singer’s mind. The main overarching themes of the album are depressing to say the least as he mainly sings about heartbreak, sex and addiction. His song “War” is specifically depressing as he sings about a type of emotional war in his relationship. In this song he shows a spirit of wickedness and selfishness by saying, “since you want to go to war, let’s see who hurts the other more” in the chorus. This shows that though he claims to love whoever the song is directed
toward, he has given up on seeing them as a human being who he has no right to hurt intentionally. This song shows a brokenness in heart, mind and spirit as well as making listeners who understand the lyrics hurt for Keshi’s sake, knowing that he is a broken and lost sinner.
This hurt for the state of the young singer’s soul is continued and amplified in his song “Just to die” when the singer states that he “thought about Jesus” when he was at his lowest, but then makes the decision that “whiskey was all that I needed”. The song continues this depressing theme in the chorus where he sings about how he views life as doing what you can just to die, claiming that life is really just a meaningless lie that we all live. The title song of this album only confirms the distortion of this young man’s soul with the line “I don’t pray to God, it’s my weakness.” It is quite heartbreaking to listen to the lyrics this young man has written and it reminds us of the painful reality that we live in a broken world where even those blessed with God-given talents can misuse those gifts to communicate a view on life that leads to sorrow, depression and emptiness.
