Ded Hyatt’s lo-fi R&B songs personify heartbreak

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Ded Hyatt says he is a dreamer, the kind of artist whose ideas hit whether he’s hiking the Pacific Crest Trail or checking into a bland chain hotel. It’s the latter that informed his moniker, a play on the hospitality giant and his own dual heritage. Born in Mountain View, California to an American mother and an Iranian father, he took the Arabic word “hayat,” which translates to “life” in English, and made the homonym sound like a business. “I liked that this beautiful Farsi and Arabic word was hiding in plain sight in the name of a white corporate hotel chain,” he says in a press statement.

Glossy, the debut album from Hyatt which was released in October, takes the idea of hiding in plain sight and runs with it. Written during a time of turbulence and disorder in his life, it’s an impressively eclectic collection of playful and loose R&B songs that call to mind Frank Ocean at his most experimental and blurry or, on standout song “Chlorine,” how you’d imagine the rumored collaboration between Justin Bieber and Mk.gee to sound.

Hyatt has said he wrote Glossy after what he calls a “life changing event,” though he hasn’t specified its precise nature. Songs such as “GT80,” which rattles with stark memories of the past, suggest it’s a break up. “I’m fine,” he sings on the track, seemingly trying to convince himself. “Sever my ties. Maybe this heart is a gift.” The album plunders the depths of a fraying relationship elsewhere, too. “Where did you expect it to end up when you accepted this?” he asks on the bleakly sketched “Devotion.” “To The Mirror,” meanwhile, imagines a couple “fashioning the cage from the inside.” These noxious dispatches from the dying embers are offset by breezier entries like “Chlorine,” which is warm and hazy with a glow radiating from the memories of the early stage of the relationship.

While Hyatt’s lyrical themes largely trend toward desolation and heartache, his musical ear remains wide open. Glossy, which was co-produced by urika’s bedroom and Shamik Ganguly, rarely settles into a sequence of songs that could be easily categorized. Album opener “Hybrid Romance” is reminiscent of The Knife, with reverb-heavy beats creating an alien and unsettling air. “Herne Hill Experiment,” meanwhile, shows Hyatt could sit comfortably alongside Tommy Richman in Brent Faiyaz’s stable of ghostly falsetto crooners. “Devotion” brings windchimes and explosive synths into the mix, combining them to sound like Enya soundtracking a noisy shmup game on her PlayStation 5.

While the dreams Hyatt offers up on Glossy are, more often than not, stark reality checks, he exits the album from a higher vantage point. He sings “Origin” from the cockpit of a spaceship, seemingly determined to distance himself from the painful memories back down on earth. Gazing out across the galaxy with a quiver in his voice, he urges earthlings to “erase the fortresses within.” It’s an unnecessary trip, though. Glossy is testament to dropping your guard and letting vulnerability lead the way.