Pop artist Lentra just dropped a chill new album: “A Happy Medium.” Featuring light vocals and a heavy acoustic sound, this album is as relaxing as it is groovy.
Collabs with bbno$
Garrett Hartnell is a Vancouver based singer, songwriter, and producer. Lentra, or ceo@business.net (yes, that is his artist name), released his first single, “hysteria” in 2016. He has since released over 40 singles and 5 albums, featuring collaborations with many, many artists, most notably, bbno$.
bbno$ is an incredibly popular rapper, who recently released a new single “Sophisticated.“As bbno$’s most frequent collaborator, Lentra has created many of the catchy instrumentals with the popular rapper. Of all the usual artists bbno$ collabs with such as Y2K and Yung Gravy, Lentra is by far the most frequent appearance. First collabing on the track “ferrari fitness” in 2016, they have since collaborated on over 10 more tracks. They have released many successful singles together, such as the popular “sriracha,” “mememe,” “who dat boi” and “bad to the bone.”
Lentra’s Own Style
However, despite his collaborative songs featuring punchy rap beats, Lentra’s own music is much the opposite. Lentra’s own music is noticeably much slower than his rap beats, and has a much more lo-fi touch. Eerie synths, simple rhythmic drums, and an easygoing singing voice compliment a calming pop groove.
Lentra’s newest release, “a happy medium,” is incredibly acoustic and calming. Heavily featuring an acoustic guitar in tracks such as “dancing in the dark” and “time flies,” while having soft electric piano synths in “so simple” and “work it out,” each track in this album has a degree of softness. Again, Lentra uses a soft, relaxed voice to sing. His voice even drops down to almost a whisper in “dancing in the dark.”
Lentra also experiments with slightly faster and bolder beats in his last two tracks in the album, while still retaining a soothing vibe. Using a prominent 808 in “out of the blue” and loud percussive beats in “sick, love,” Lentra ups the intensity of these tracks, while still keeping his voice down. This contrast gives his music a quiet grooviness, a hard balance to master and one that Lentra excels at.
In most of the tracks in this album, Lentra sings about love.
“Yeah, holding you like sand inside my palms /
Wondering how this could ever go wrong /
Always searching for the sorrow /
Whispering things that I never say /
Your eyes look at me some type of way /
Melting your hands like I’m hollow”
– “dancing in the dark”
Yet, in an artistic decision, the later songs in the album devolve into insecurity and breaking up:
“Oh, poor me /
So I guess you won’t be holdin’ me /
Gets a little lonely, don’t you think? /
Well you got an ocean of tears to drink, ha”
– “out of the blue”
Lentra is an artist that is definitely underrated and has created incredibly unique work. Check out “a happy medium” by clicking here!
