Giveon is in the mood for heartbreak
If there’s one thing Giveon’s gonna do, it’s set the mood. First, he did it with the lights. At the recent Manila stop of his “Beloved” concert tour, the New Frontier Theater might as well have been a 1950s lounge. The backlighting—warm and sultry, with reds and ambers—kept the stage in view, but left everything else tucked in the shadows.
And when at last he made his entrance in a plush fur coat, he appeared nothing more than a hazy silhouette, like a mysterious character in a modern film noir.
His voice followed soon after. Unlike the high tenors often heard in modern R&B, Giveon has a rich, mature baritone that harkens back to old-time icons like Frank Sinatra and Barry White. The influences are unmistakable, but there are textures in his voice that give him a sound all his own.
He can croon smoothly over soulful jams or coo ever so gently beside tinkling piano keys. He has this distinct quiver and a built-in echo, if you will, that makes impassioned passages sound like laments, and crescendos like anguished cries. He also sings slightly behind the beat, which can come across as either weariness or pleading.
Timeless and modern
But this wasn’t a throwback showcase in every sense. Although there’s timelessness in his tone, his storytelling is where his modern sensibilities reveal themselves. His delivery isn’t particularly melodic, but more conversational—at times as if he’s thinking out loud in a hip-hop-like cadence, or reading from diary entries that just happen to be songs.
All this to say that Giveon had everything he needed to give a masterclass in the art of heartbreak. With a setlist spanning his “Take Time,” “Give or Take,” and “Beloved” eras, the singer-songwriter from Long Beach, California, sang of love—the romance, the messiness, and the grief of it all.
In “Rather Be,” he finds himself caught between staying in the stale but familiar, or risking it all in the new and unfamiliar. He goes on an ego trip in “Still Your Best,” pretending he’s unbothered by love lost. And in “Favorite Mistake,” he weighs the fleeting pleasure against the inevitable consequences of infidelity.
And as it all happened, the lights shifted according to the mood, from a warm glow to hues of blue that evoked loneliness, and to hot white lights that held steady for spotlight moments and flashed frantically in moments of urgency.
Deceptively potent
But no matter the shade of love or pain, one thing is certain: Each song that comes out of his mouth comes from his heart. They’re all true stories, based on real emotions and real people, he stresses, because there’s no other way he knows how to write. “The reason I started writing in the first place was because I was an angry child, and I didn’t know where to put my emotions. So I just started writing everything down on paper, and then it all started to rhyme,” Giveon tells the rapt crowd.
“It’s just crazy how I can go from writing all these words and songs [about a person] to us pretty much being strangers,” he says, before segueing to, well, “Strangers,” a ’70s-inspired R&B-soul fusion that veers away from digital samples and instead revels in more organic and sweeping orchestral instrumentation.
This brings us to another deceptively potent mood-setter: the live band, which functioned like a small string section and a soul-jazz ensemble at once. The swell and fade of the strings created a cinematic feel. Spurts of horns brought a smoky air reminiscent of a late-night club.
And in the lulls between songs, the band continued to work its magic, suffusing the venue with subtle, toe-tapping beats.
Like that one time Giveon gave a monologue about how much he hates passive-aggressive people—all while smooth and funky basslines pulsed in the background. “A passive-aggressive person, when something is wrong, acts as if something is wrong. But when you ask them what’s wrong, they say nothing is wrong. And then the whole thing is just wrong!” he says, drawing laughter as he explains the inspiration behind the song “Backup Plan.”
“It’s confusing, and it’s wrong… So I said, enough is enough. I packed my bags, and I left. But then, like I always do, I came right back with the hope that things would be just a little bit better. And it was not… It was crazy.” There were chuckles, groans, and nods of agreement. Clearly, Giveon isn’t the only one allergic to passive-aggression.
Hard-hitting songs
And perhaps this disconnect comes from the fact that he never knew any other expression of love than to wear his heart on his sleeve. Toward the end of the show, Giveon puts out three of his hardest-hitters.
In “For Tonight,” perhaps the closest thing in his set to a good-ol’ pop-soul ballad, he sings of the intoxicating high of a romance both secret and illicit. For “Twenties,” Giveon asked the audience to hold up their phone lights—the better to watch the fans as they revisited the regrets and memories of a love that lasted until it didn’t.
By the time Giveon’s biggest solo hit, “Heartbreak Anniversary,” slinked in, everyone was on their feet, ready to sing their hearts out and relive the memories of a cherished relationship on the day it ended. At this point, the only thing missing to complete the mood was a drink—and he did. As he bid everyone goodbye, Giveon kept things smooth with a glass of wine in hand. And frankly, everyone could probably have used one.
“Thank you for allowing me to be as emotional as I want up here. If any of you are feeling it tonight, it’s okay. This is a safe space,” he tells the fans. “We can be a little emotional today, you know?” Not that they needed any permission.
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