Rank: 4/5
Brooklyn-based producer The Range’s newest full-length effort, “Potential,” comes off as a standard electro-pop affair at first listen, but in reality, it’s much more.
The innovation that The Range brings to the table with “Potential” isn’t in the actual production of the music, but rather the samples he chose to feature. Whereas most artists in EDM tend to sample pop powerhouse choruses, he has looked to a new source of inspiration: YouTube.
All of the vocals present on “Potential” were acquired from artists who uploaded their work to the video-sharing site. Not the viral sensations though – The Range scoured through the deepest sections of the site in an effort to find artists whose work never attracted many viewers.
The resulting tracks feature vocal fragments repeated in creative ways around The Range’s consistently impressive beats. The real weight of the album is in the interpretation. In most cases, very little context is given to the sampled phrase and it is up to the listener to identify with the speaker.
The best example of this appears on the opening track, “Regular,” in which The Range sampled the phrase: “Right now I don’t have a backup plan for if I don’t make it.”
Without knowing the source of the sample, there are a lot of implications that come with this one simple phrase. Most listeners have been able to identify with the emotions conveyed here at some point in their lives.
At the end of the day, that’s what “Potential” is all about – the emotion.
Another level of understanding of The Range’s “Regular” sample can be achieved when looking at the actual origin of the phrase from rapper S Dot Star, who turned to YouTube as a method of developing his career.
The underlying narrative of a man devoting all of his time and energy toward a dream that seems difficult to achieve is one that all of us are familiar with.
It’s even more interesting to look at that same narrative and acknowledge that this incredible technology called the internet has given dreamers a platform to share their work with a global community. Here lies one of the core themes of “Potential” – how the act of creation in the internet age can, for the first time in history, be a truly collaborative effort.
“Regular” is one of many notable tracks on the project. Other standouts include “Copper Wire,” which features a fantastic verse by one of the many artists buried in YouTube anonymity, and “1804.”
On the surface, “Potential” appears to be just another solid example of The Range’s masterful production skillset, but delving into the project proves that so much can be said by saying so little.