Crystal Murray

2020’s EP I Was Wrong tipped Crystal Murray as a mercurial star, expanding the boundaries of neo-soul with taut, yet tapestry-like lyricism and intoxicating soundscapes – and one she started writing at only 15. Her 2021 COLORS Studio performance of “BOSS” enchanted audiences, her hypnotic cool and honeyed voice centre stage, as a shimmering love letter to sisterhood. This led into her frenetic second EP, 2022’s Twisted Bases, where Crystal explores her themes deftly – messy relationships, her vulnerabilities, various personas tried on and divested in youth. There is a clear evolution: lyrical maturation, creative curiosity, and a rebellious sonic palette.

Sad Lovers And Giants is the first album of an assured young artist that, though only 22, is done with playing to expectations. “I’m moving away from personas, to make a clear statement that this is me,” says Crystal. “My music can be tragic and theatrical, cinematic and massive – but it is all me.”

She resisted labelling her last EP an album.“It still sounded like I was searching,” she says. “And it’s not a problem to be searching. I always hope to grow and explore! But I’m happy I waited to be in a wiser state of mind. I’m still eclectic in my music, but in a way that I choose to be.”

The 11-track record finds purpose in transposing Crystal’s own personal arc onto the wider world. « In understanding my own emotional power, I hope to give others that strength and release,” she says. “To honour their emotional contradictions.”

Born and raised in Paris, Crystal was exposed to the arts young. Her father was a saxophonist and her mother worked in music production, so she was often accompanying them to jazz clubs and her father’s tours. She grew up listening to Rihanna, Macy Gray, and John Coltrane; it’s her family’s free jazz lineage that she holds closest. “It is such a punk part of African American culture,” she says; “I’m a child of that movement, and I’ve come to understand how that makes me so natural with music.”

Culture caught on: she appeared in Vogue, Dazed and Office, and campaigns for Paco Rabanne and Diesel. She founded her own label, Spin Desire, giving a platform to up-and-coming artist, and kickstarted a residency and club night at Paris mainstay club, Silencio. But with teenage years intertwined with the industry, Crystal felt stifled. “I got pushed in the ‘neo soul’ direction,” she says. “I was contending with this cliche of the ‘neo-soul woman’ – she’s a Black girl with an afro, she’s clean and nice. I loved it, but it scared me too. At 16, I was trying to fit a box that wasn’t mine – I wanted to rock shit out too.”