Wet :: "No Lie"

Ever since last spring, the Brooklyn slow-jammers Wet have spun simmering arrangements of hook-laden R&B. On "No Lie", out next month on a Columbia imprint, the formula grows considerable darker than winsome debut track, "U Da Best". A digital drum-snap hits like a blinking light at the end of the world as vocalist Kelly Zutrau surveys the wreckage of a bombed out relationship. These failures were laid bare on "U Da Best" too but the veneer was also considerably brighter. "No Lie" colors everything dark red, lyrics bleeding from multiple mortal injuries. The brightest spot is a melodic ode to TLC's "Scrubs", here on the lyrics "but I've had enough, you put me on and on and on" mirroring "hanging out the passengers side of his best friend's ride" of the seminal 1999 super hit. But this is no playground, or girl-power anthem. "No Lie" freezes and smolders in the same instant, delicate and crushing at once, Zutrau both fragile and resolute. The final lyric provides a measure of escape velocity: "I've had enough," as the arrangement winnows away.