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A couple of weeks ago, singer-songwriter Kevin Abstract released his fifth studio album, Blush, via Juno and X8 Music. Blush is a major collaborative project, with Abstract calling upon some of his closest friends, who also happen to work within the music industry, to create this authentic, genre-blended album that truly has something for everyone. When the initial tracklist was released, Blush was 19 tracks in length. However, once the album was on streaming, there were only 18 tracks, with number 15, ‘Doggystyle’ seemingly missing.
[ Alternate 'Doggy' Cover via Instagram ]
It was later revealed that ‘Doggystyle’ was cut from Blush seemingly due to its vulgar name, with Abstract taking to social media to generate a new name for the track to be released under. On July 8th, Abstract announced that ‘Doggystyle’ would be released on July 11th as a single on all streaming platforms under the new name ‘Doggy’, which, in my opinion, fits the track slightly better, as unless you’re deeply reading into things, ‘Doggy’ is fairly tame, barely bridging into anything sexual.
‘Doggy’, similarly to the rest of Blush, is a collaborative track with 3 additional artists providing some form of vocals alongside Abstract. Officially, ‘Doggy’ belongs to Geezer, which we now officially know is a band consisting of Kevin Abstract and Dominic Fike. On ‘Doggy’, Fike handles the intro, refrain, and second verse, being the most prevalent voice on the entire song. Out of everything he’s done for Blush and Geezer thus far, I’d like to say ‘Doggy’ may be Fike at some of his best, especially within that second verse, as the second he speaks, you’re completely locked in on whatever he has to say. As an avid fan of Fike, I also appreciate these small lyrical parallels he creates between ‘Doggy’ and some of his past works. The parallels aren’t anything huge, but they’re enough to create this distinct feeling of continuation.
Truly Young is also featured on ‘Doggy’. As mentioned in our review of Blush, I found myself getting hooked by her vocals on ‘Girlfriend’, with her presence being a true standout among everyone else. I hold the same sentiment towards Truly Young’s verse on ‘Doggy’, as she helps to set this tone within the first verse that acts almost like a foundation for Fike to build off later in the song. If her verse had been cut for any reason, I don’t think ‘Doggy’ would have been the same. Truly Young feels both essential to the track’s core, yet I could also imagine her being the missing puzzle piece that brings ‘Doggy’ together. Regardless, her vocal performance is something so casual and simultaneously deeply purposeful, which results in me often quoting her lines around the house, especially “on the floor, not on the mattress.”
Abstract and Love Spells work together to complete ‘Doggy’, with both of them being featured within the main chorus, and Abstract sliding in along with Fike within the second verse. Again, I am thoroughly blown away by Love Spells' vocal range, as I often find myself needing to do a double-take whenever I see their name listed on the track. For Abstract, though he doesn’t have the largest role on ‘Doggy’, he slides into exactly where he needs to be, not in the sense that he’s picking up slack, but that he doesn’t need a huge role to make an impact on the track. One part of his vocals that will be sure to scratch the brains of all listeners is his “On top of that dog” ad-lib in the chorus, as it’s truly the cherry on top of a near-perfect song.
As of right now, ‘Doggy’ seems to be the final single to be released for the first wave of Blush. However, Abstract is already putting out the ideas of a ‘Blush Mixtape’ and ‘Blush 2’, both of which we’ll probably begin to hear more about later on this year. Alongside this, Abstract has been teasing a possible Geezer or Blush tour, and he’s been working on turning the Clifford73 (Blush Instagram Account) into a proper company. For all Blush-related updates, you can check out the Instagram Account HERE.
STREAM ‘DOGGY’ HERE.
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