The Singles Jukebox

Not a Miley Cyrus cover Not a Wiz Khalifa cover Not a How Many Times Are We Going To Do This Joke Cover with thanks to Taylor for suggesting this multilingual magnificence…

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[7.18]

Rose Stuart: Saint Levant has been one of my most listened to artists of 2023, and “See You Again” is a great example why. The wistful, dream-like instrumentation is the sonic exemplar of yearning, kept grounded by a beat reminiscent of a ticking clock. Saint Levant’s laid-back flow maintains the airiness of the song, but where in “Nails” it was effortlessly confident, here it almost sounds pained. The seemingly simple flow only serves to highlight his masterful wordplay, and the easy switch between languages emphasises the double meanings of the song — a regretful love ballad, and a mourning for the past (what past is left only hinted at, with references to the “war in [his] room” and the EP being titled From Gaza, with Love). It feels like a disservice to Saint Levant to say, but “See You Again” is what Drake was trying to achieve — dreamy and melancholic, self-flagellating without ever being pathetic, brutally honest in all of its emotions. I only hope that Saint Levant sees some of the success Drake has. 
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Taylor Alatorre: “PTSD back from ’05.” In 2005, Marwan Abdelhamid was 4 years old. A diagnosis originally used to describe shell-shocked soldiers returning from World War I is here used to denote the earliest memories of one’s childhood. This daunting revelation is tucked away at the tail end of Saint Levant’s EP From Gaza, With Love, a release which largely focuses on the second half of that title  — “Lover Boy Levant,” he calls himself at one point, a bit of Drake mimicry that’s disarming in its blatantness. Knowing this, it may not seem immediately logical to view “See You Again” as a more elegiac, pessimistic version of Kanye’s “Homecoming,” with Gaza swapped in for Chicago. There is no big “if you don’t know by now” reveal to spell it out for the listener, and one could easily write the song off as a less horned-up take on the rapper’s default pose as the globe-hopping heartbreaker. It’s only by taking in the EP as a whole, and specifically its title track, that the more political interpretation becomes unignorable, if not undeniable. Prior to that track’s groanworthy verse about Bella Hadid, there’s these two crucial asides in the background, like intrusive thoughts made manifest: “but I’d feel like a tourist if I even went back,” and “if they had it their way we would never go back.” The first of those has an entire other single written about it, but it’s the second that’s more relevant here. I’ve no desire to turn this into an essay about the right of return, and Levant doesn’t either — though I will note that I am writing this on the date that UN Resolution 194 was adopted, and that Levant’s record label, 2048, is named after the 100th anniversary of the Nakba. “See You Again,” while rooted in this history, is more of a quiet inventory of personal losses and regrets than a rousing expression of national aspirations. He may use an unnamed “auntie” as a stand-in for his homeland, but he resists the temptation to cast his atypical refugee story as the avatar of an entire diaspora. Just as crucially, despite the forward-looking stance of the song’s title, it spends far more time dwelling in the irretrievable past than in planning for a future that it intentionally leaves vague and undefined: “Two years and they flew by… I left you when I needed you.” The production style, archetypically yet suitably intimate, is devoid of tricks or gimmicks, save for one which works incredibly well. When the lower end drops out of the mix in the second verse, leaving only the piano and a few lonely drum pads, it makes the repetition of the lyrics seem like a mournful meditation instead of a cop-out. He could say more, and he has in other songs, but does he need to here? Is it not right and just to simply pause and take stock of what has been lost, of what once was and never can be again, before taking one more uncertain step forward?
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Wayne Weizhen Zhang: There’s so much subtext here — from Saint Levant’s birth during the second intifada, to the way that he effortlessly weaves French, Arabic, and English together, to daddy issues, to the way that the object of his affection seems to both be a person and a place currently experiencing the worst genocide of the 21st century — is it bad that my biggest takeaway is just how insanely sexy Saint Levant sounds? 
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Ian Mathers: There’s so much going on here that I’m kind of mad at my brain for refusing to focus on anything other than “remember when Drake was actually an appealing presence on a song?” (I’m not sure I do, but Saint Levant makes me feel like I could understand it.)
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Micha Cavaseno: French remains one of the worst languages for rap. There’s maybe two times I’ve heard French spat on a beat and not been repulsed; one time by some guys attempting fake Three Six Mafia stuff in a Salem mix (so already extremely niche circumstances) and the other from MHD’s career (now potentially over as he’s currently facing incarceration!). Saint Levant is not achieving that by doing the warmed over Migos triplet cadence married to Stormzy-level saccharine nobility through the trials and tribulations we all must go through… and yeah, this man has a certain amount of genuine tribulations. But he’s abandoning that for generic platitudes that muffle and muddy whatever he’s trying to express. He needs a new flow, new style, whole new everything. And please, please, don’t rap in French to me. Nobody deserves that, not even the French!
[4]

Nortey Dowuona: I don’t know why Buddy Cademi went super hard on the piano, but I hope he reaps a significant amount in royalties for carrying this damn song on his finger — not his back, his fingers. Absolutely beautiful. Oh, and “PTSD back from ’05” is a great line. The tenderness which Saint Levant sings “I really hope I see you again” with the unknown female vocalist is beautiful. Wish I could find her name though…
[5]

David Moore: Warmed-over, if pleasant, modal rap that gives a lot of space for a (the-)dreamy synth and piano bath I associate with an era of sing/rap I personally found a bit less one-note (well, four-note, technically). Can I give it an extra point for heartbreaking geopolitical resonance? Yes.
[6]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: It’s elegant in its restraint. Saint Levant doesn’t drag it out at all. The chorus acts as a bookend for his plaintive cry, not even begging but hoping that he can see the addressee again. The piano becomes more prominent throughout until Saint Levant trusts it to end the track on its own, embodying his feelings just as much as the words did, the tiny modulations playing on hope, not fear.
[9]

Brad Shoup: The last playlist I made was of songs from 1998; I always love doing the years with rap but the Continental stuff tests me. For like 15 years, the predominant strains were, in reverse order, “German frat guys” and the grimmest boom-bap imaginable. So yes, it’s a balm to hear Drake-style emotional rap, especially with celestial synths and piano lines that move like parted curtains.
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Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Drawn back to this again and again for the moment two minutes in when words fail and a truly gorgeous passage of piano unfurls itself. It’s one of the most arresting moments in pop this year — a moment of rupture and relief from the deep and messy feelings of the rest of the song.
[7]

Katherine St Asaph: “See You Again” recalls the electro quietstorm of 2010, with its brooding synth wash and expressive piano. Inescapably for a 2023 album called From Gaza, With Love, the heartbreak runs through multiple channels.
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