Inside The Credits 028: Aidan Carroll
Aidan Carroll’s Sleek Melancholy
If you haven’t heard “dangerous game” by Esta. & Leon Thomas yet, you’ve missed a really special r&b moment of 2024. Producer Esta., dropped a really cool compilation album and this second lead single is the sheer highlight. Thomas enters the track like Brandy with the melismas. This means he leans into the flex of the note descension and ascension but somehow never gets overwrought and instead fits slickly within the cadences. His vocal maneuvers fold smoothly into guttural electric guitar that at the end of the song explodes into a time stopping solo. The composition of the track is a trapeze act and Esta. choreographed the sounds with a familiar name to me, Aidan Carroll.
My favorite ep of 2023 was Reggie Becton’s Sadboy Vol. 1. Carroll, I noted when I first heard it, produced the majority of the tracks and specifically crafted the standout “Self Control.” What Becton and Carroll were able to capture on that song is the specific sleek melancholy beneath exciting yet problematic lust and potential love. The correlation between “Self Control” and “dangerous game” is clear; Carroll has a distinct affinity for balancing passion and looming demise. This is the makeup of so much potent r&b music because that in between space provides such opportunity for lyrical dissection. I decided to track all the ways Carroll has arranged sounds beneath voices dealing with this dichotomy.
Carroll's path began with Becton in 2019 for his ep My Beanie’s Orange. The duo didn’t quite tap into the sad toxicity as poignantly as they would in 2023, yet on the track “Naturally” they found their most potent early pocket. Despite sparse transitions that feel a bit disconnected in this early stage, there are still moments of driving basslines, drum kicks, and guitar builds that allow for Becton to lean seductively teary-eyed.
Next, I found that Carroll has worked consistently with another artist whose work I consistently revere, the deft melancholy songstress Niia. He first began collaborating with her on her 2021 ep If I Should Die, which allowed Carroll to bring his r&b proficiency to a more pop/jazz space. From the first song on the ep he’s credited on, “Not Up For Discussion,” you can hear how this genre space allowed for Carroll to add a necessary element of smokiness to his arsenal. There is a sense of dark bar contemplation that exists in his later work that can clearly be rooted here. Then on the album’s best song “If I Should Die” feat. Girl Ultra you can hear Carroll figuring out a winding guitar and bass pattern that brought Niia incredibly introspective. She would ruminate there in her first verse then flip outward on the hook via a double layered vocal. Then when the slick Spanish singing of Girl Ultra glided in, the puzzle became complete. Carroll crafted a deft pattern for the type of heartbreak that breaks you, but still allows space for you to hold onto hope.
Carroll clearly brought what he learned back to Becton for his next album, 2021’s California. “Scratches In The Mirror” brings Becton’s sound straight to the dark bar and suddenly his vocal layering elevates to atmospheric levels. The song is simply produced, featuring mostly waning electric guitar and bass, foreshadowing the more imposing and drum-laden “dangerous game.” The song’s build is where it really stands out. All of his first two years of work culminated in Carroll’s most pure crescendo thus far. This allowed for Becton to show off metaphorical penmanship which cuts through the speaker like a sword.
Carroll would only need one more project with Niia before he was ready for Sadboy Vol. 1; her 2022 album OFFAIR: Mouth Full of Salt. On the album, Carroll produced a trio of “Sound Bath Suite’s” which sound exactly like what they are labeled as. Listening to them feels like the end of a sweat filled hot yoga class. So simply, Carroll converted his smoke to steam and then everything fully fell into place. Not just on “Self Control,” but on Sadboy songs like the drill-laced “Streets,” and the Latin-inspired “Call,” Becton and Caroll take you to the sultry side of relationship musings. You are transported to the end of the drawn out fight where the air in the room gets heavy and you give in to your lover.
Carroll would produce a few more songs for both Niia and Becton before getting to his work with Esta. He made some of his most reflective songs with both of them yet, which allowed for the compositions to sound floatier. Then when he got to Esta. the equilibrium was complete. His melancholy had become multi-layered, so when Thomas crooned lines like, “Drowning like my feelings are to stones/Having broken dreams and a broken home/Used to be right here and I used to be too clear/You don't like when I'm too honest, all them sorrys you don't wanna hear,” on “dangerous game,” they fit right into the pockets of his sonic painting.
Inside The Credits 028: Aidan Carroll- The Playlists