It looks like the issue of love is something that comes naturally to Knii Lante. It strikes me how the love theme runs through almost all his songs. Talk of “Baby Take Good Care”, “Baby be Mine”, “You”, “When You Love Someone” and “Humanity” which pays homage to frontline health workers. All his songs ooze with love. Then comes the latest one “I Just Want...

There's a specific kind of bleak bartering that happens at 2 AM, and Rusty Reid’s single “Piece of the Action” builds a whole four-minute economy around it. This isn't a song about the sweeping grandeur of romance; it’s a clinical look at turning “dissatisfaction” into “a transaction of love.” The language is deliberate, almost like a contract being signed on a napkin under a...