- A warm, uplifting and heartfelt exploration of family and loss through the lens of Jayda G's ebullient disco pop.
- One afternoon after my grandma died, I was clearing out her wardrobe when I came across a book I'd never seen before. Called Journal Of A Lifetime, it was full of prompts to help her write her life story, which would be passed on to my mum and later, me. I happened upon the book in different circumstances than I should have—organising what was left of her life after her and my mum had both passed away—but it taught me things about her that I never would have learned otherwise. I was reminded of my grandma's journal, and how difficult it is to grapple with the unanswered questions that are left behind when someone dies, when I first read about the inspiration behind Jayda G's second album, Guy.
Jayda G's father, William Richard Guy, died shortly before she turned ten. In the months leading up to his death, with the help of Jayda G's older sister, he recorded 11 hours of video tapes documenting his story—his own journal of a lifetime—for his youngest daughter. Guy is the product of Jayda G wanting to learn more about her late father and understand his character more deeply. The album is built around snippets of his recordings, with each track inspired by either a particular chapter of his story or something she's learned about herself during this process. "This album is about him and for me," she wrote on Instagram. "I needed this. It gave me perspective, understanding and depth to myself and my outlook on life and family."
As well as preserving his life story, William Guy's tapes also document his experience as a young African-American in a predominantly white area of Kansas—"Blue Lights" and "Circle Back Around" both pertain to her father's interactions with the police. "Heads Or Tails" and "Lonely Back In O" touch on his time stationed in Thailand with the army. The subject matter is heavy, but in typical Jayda G fashion, the music is bright and bursting with optimism. After all, what is dance music for, if not to uplift?
In comparison to her debut album, 2019's Significant Changes, Guy is less loping disco and more of a straight pop record that borrows from her roots in disco, house, soul and R&B. All the songs, bar the interludes of Jayda G's father speaking, sit around the three-to-four-minute mark in length and generally follow a verse-chorus-verse structure. Several of the bridges strip back the instrumentals and leave room for a "Both Of Us"-style chorus of claps. These tracks will translate comfortably into her sets, but can feel a little repetitive when listening to the album.
In Resident Advisor's review of Significant Changes, Andrew Ryce wrote that, "When [Jayda G] herself takes the lead on vocals, it can get a little rocky." On Guy, she takes to singing more naturally. Her warm, tender voice takes centre stage, guiding the flow of every track and adding a deeply personal feel. (On tracks like "Heads Or Tails," her tone reminds me of La Roux.)
Although Jayda G has mastered the art of the earworm—I've been singing a handful of refrains to myself for weeks—there are moments on Guy where the lyrics feel almost too simple for the complex emotions behind her songs. On the colourful bop "Sapphires Of Gold," she reflects on her father's decision to give up drugs and alcohol and thinks about the wider human desire to get sucked into habits that don't serve us. The opening line goes: "Been encouraged to be naughty / I am naughty, and still holy." There's something about the "naughty yet holy" label that takes away from the message within.
Still, there's so much clarity and hope to be found in Jayda G's marriage of production with songwriting that any cloying moments are easily forgiven. "Scars," one of the album's standouts, is a shining example. Warm chords, house rhythms and crisp drum machine claps accompany defiant lyrics about her father's experience of being bullied and navigating the world as a person of colour. "I've got scars," she sings, the reverb sending her voice soaring. "But I promise you I'm growing."
Then there's "When She Dance," with funky bass guitar riffs and a groove that reflects the self-assured and vivacious attitude of William Guy's mother, who inspired the track, and more widely, the strength of Black women. Here, and on a few other tracks, is a theme that forms part of Guy's narrative but also paints a picture of Jayda G the dancer, and her energy in the booth. "She's gonna let her hair down / Ain't takin' it from no one," goes "When She Dance," while on one of the lines on "Blue Lights" she sings: "Gonna dance / Like I'm on fire."
There are a few clips of Jayda G, as a small girl with a huge grin, dancing around the house in the "Circle Back Around" video, soundtracked by breezy vocal pads and gorgeous gleaming textures. The video ends in the same way as the album, with a final clip of her father's voice. William Guy's words conclude "15 Foot," a delicate, R&B-leaning number about the waves of grief Jayda G's mother felt following the death of her husband.
"It doesn't seem fair, but maybe that's the course of life," William Guy says. "Maybe that's one of the reasons why we're here on earth, to learn how to be companions and loving to one another. Once you've achieved that, well, maybe it's time up, I don’t know. But what I do know is that I love you very much."
Society doesn't always deal well with talking about death and loss, but Guy expounds grief as an extension of the love you felt for your person who isn't here anymore. The album is defined not only by its contemplative storytelling, but also in its emphatic invitation to dance, to let go and to find joy in movement—à la Jayda G.
Tracklist01. Intro
02. Blue Lights
03. Heads Or Tails
04. Scars
05. Interlude: I Got Tired Of Running
06. Lonely Back In O
07. Your Thoughts
08. Interlude: It Was Beautiful
09. Meant To Be
10. Circle Back Around
11. When She Dance
12. Sapphires Of Gold
13. 15 Foot