How You Illuminate My Thoughts

Vince Staples “When Sparks Fly”

I’ll admit that it took me a while to get that this isn’t a regular love song, but rather Vince Staples doing his own take on Nas’ “I Gave You Power” – the lyrics are from the perspective of a personified gun, and this time around it’s a romance. Staples is clever enough to make this work perfectly well as a single entendre but his lyricism really shines in the double meanings, particularly in the extended protection/glove metaphor midway through the first verse. Frano’s track is all atmospheric sensuality and sex though, so I wonder if Staples felt a little too self-conscious about writing a straight-up love song. It’s more interesting and certainly more macho as the gun thing, but I feel like the song is actually more resonant without that layer of ironic distance.

Buy it from Amazon.