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Day\u2019s 2015 debut album had a reverberant, widescreen, retro sound. By contrast, \u201cCassandra (Cherith)\u201d favors focused close-ups; it heightens details, making Day\u2019s voice more exposed and even more daring. Throughout the album, her delivery feels questing and improvisatory. She\u2019s so sure of her melodies that she can embellish them at any moment, stretching or rushing or wriggling them as the impulse strikes.<\/p>\n
She breezes across styles and eras. From a base in neo-soul, with hip-hop beats underpinning sinuous R&B melodies, Day also touches on jazz, Motown, jazz, bossa nova, piano rock and vintage-sounding orchestral pop. But the most important sound on Day\u2019s album is her voice. It\u2019s precise but uninhibited, sometimes carefree and sometimes fiercely intimate.<\/p>\n
Cassandra is Day\u2019s full first name (she was born Cassandra Monique Batie); Cherith is derived from the Hebrew word for \u201cto cut away.\u201d But many of the new album\u2019s songs are about lingering romantic and emotional entanglements, about how difficult it is to cut away or make a clean break. By the end of the album\u2019s sequence, Day has found some serenity, but only after navigating an emotional labyrinth: from a reluctant, backsliding separation through a thorny new start to, eventually, a purposeful self-acceptance.<\/p>\n