Listening to the new DaLomonze EP, “Picture Day,” is a study in deceptive portraiture. You’re told it’s about capturing a moment, a fixed smile for the world, documenting personal growth. The Cleveland artist’s vocals are certainly grand enough for a milestone, full-bodied and cinematic, with an orchestral sweep that feels both holy and expensive. But something is hiding in the gorgeous frame. It’s not documenting love; it’s documenting a hunt.
This music has the strange, unnerving scent of night-blooming jasmine climbing the walls of a forgotten mausoleum—intoxicating, yes, but its sweetness is rooted somewhere cold and final. DaLomonze builds a soundscape of soulful allure, but lurking within the angelic harmonies and stirring violin is the narrative of a beautiful, ancient predator. His voice shifts from silken promise to the coiled-spring tension of a rap verse, a narrator confessing to a crime he fully intends to commit again. He’s the dragon disguised as the desirable prince, the witch offering an apple so perfect you’d be a fool not to take a bite.
The true cunning of the EP is in how it makes this malevolent narcissism sound so utterly tempting. This isn’t the sound of a monster roaring; it’s the sound of a monster reasoning with you, making you believe its hunger is a form of love, that being consumed is a kind of ascension. The music is a masterful trap, and DaLomonze is both the architect and the bait.
It leaves you feeling exquisitely tricked, a participant in a beautiful game you never realized you were losing from the start. So, as the final angelic harmony fades, you have to ask: who are you really smiling for in your picture, and what appetite does it feed?
