Pink Nois tells the story of Silver Sabre

By KAYLA DEMICCO
Co-Executive Editor

Former Saint Rose student, Jorim Motley, also known as Pink Nois, released his first full-length album on Sept. 20 entitled, “Silver Sabre.” Motley had been working on this album since March of this year.

“It was for my capstone project for school, and originally, I had a whole, completely different album with a different plot and songs planned out, but the more I worked on it, the more I realized it didn’t resonate with me at that time,” said Motley.

The album starts off with “Intro,” which I feel would be best listened while listening through headphones to give the listener a 3D effect of the sounds going on. This 31-second track is a good opener as it leaves you wondering what to expect for the music to follow.

The next track, “Beautiful Morning,” starts off with the sound of birds chirping as if it were the first thing you hear for the day. This track is very chill and good for easy listening as it lives up to the title and has a peaceful vibe to it.

The next track “King of the Hill,” contrasts the previous track as it is instrumentally heavier and has more trap-like beats. In this love song, he repeats, “You are the king of the hill in my heart.”
My favorite line of this song is definitely, “How are you going to say it ain’t real when you know I can feel all of your pain whenever we are apart?”

In “Sideways,” it features Thai, who he has collaborated with many times in the past, it follows the heavy instrumental but has edgier lyrics with sexual undertones.

“[It’s] deeper than that,” said Motley. “Sideways is kinda like the indicator that the character has finally turned into something different than who we see him to be in the beginning of the album.”

“Stars” is much lighter and has funkier-type vibes that make you want to groove. In this track, he sings with Saint Rose student, Valerie Barbosa. This feels more uplifting about how one connects with someone else in a relationship and reminds me of “All the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA from the “Black Panther: The Album.”

The set up of “Stars” fits very well right behind “Sideways” as there are lyrical references to it that can be found within the track.

In “Stellar Death”, there is a lot going on as it features Adji, Hooligan Lou, Money Making Biggz and Thai. Since it has heavy beats, it is interestingly placed where it is compared to the songs before and after it.

“Essentially, Stars is a plea to the character to try to show light, even though his nature may be dark at times. Stellar Death, as a result, is completely throwing that idea away and embracing darkness entirely. Even by the title names, you can see the connection,” said Motley.

In “Seigfried,” it is unlike anything that he’s ever released as it is slow and has a ballad-type feel for it. In this piano driven track, he definitely shows off his more vulnerable side as he sings about dreaming of a future with someone. A beautiful orchestration hits in the middle of the song unexpectedly but in the best way possible.

I feel this song would be described as a power ballad as it seems he pours his heart out. Upon first listen, it made me misty-eyed as I feel empathy since his emotion is that strong.

“Tin Man” reminds me of an 80’s song as he sings with robotic synths throughout almost the whole song. In an inexplicable way, it gives me a nostalgic feeling with a hint of being interested where it is going to lead to. His actual vocals come back towards the end of the song to say, “The man in me.” very softly which gives me Michael Jackson type vibes.

When I asked him about it, he said, “It’s crazy that you bring up Michael because I wanted to capture the same feel as the end of She’s Out Of My Life by Michael Jackson at the end of Tin Man.”

“Identity” is the most interesting song on the album. While there are no instrumentals on this song, the spoken word has a rhythm to it that almost feels like a conversational podcast. Pink Nois is having a conversation with “himself,” or a British alter ego of himself named “Theo.” In this, “Theo” is giving him a pep talk. The dialogue going on between the “two” is capturing, having you hang on to every word. While they are having a deep conversation, it’s comedic in a sense.

“I love acting and voice acting and I try to bring scenes like that to show my range of abilities as well as making the project feel more like an experience and a film rather than just a large work of music,” said Motley.

“Silver Sabre,” which features Lone Phone Booth and Laveda, takes you on an instrumental journey. In the beginning of the song, he says, “Always fit myself into a mold,” which is ironic because the song itself does not fit a specific mold. It starts out with a bopping beat which gives me the feel of an 80’s coming of age film. It goes into a groovy beat with outer space type vibes and ends softly on the piano.

When describing the vibe of the song, he says, “For me, when I listen to it, it sort of feels like having your emotions being turned back on. From going from cold and robotic to more human and feeling.”

The last track, “Home,” is the type of song that you would listen to on a long car ride home as you’re solemnly looking out the window as you’re driving down the highway in late afternoon in the fall. This track that features Xander London starts off with guitar and you can hear it lightly in the background underneath the steady beats and synths. It has another beautiful surprise of orchestration towards the end.

“Not only does Silver Sabre function as a story itself, but it connects itself with other stories across my whole discography, creating one giant story,” said Motley.

Overall this album was really enjoyable to listen to and to follow the storyline along with it was enrapturing. Not only is Motley an amazing lyricist in this album, as he produced 90% of this album (“[S]ave for the other very important 10% through production tips and general ideas contributed by Cory and Grace Annunziato!,” he says), everything about this album ties together amazingly.

“Silver Sabre” is available on all streaming platforms and Pink Nois released an EP called “Mastermind” on Oct. 31, which is only available on SoundCloud and Quadio.