Cautious Clay’s Karpeh is an ambitious exploration of roots, family ties, and home

By: Grace Roberts

Rural Ohio doesn’t initially seem like the kind of place that would inspire a soulful, jazz-infused love letter in the form of an album, yet it is the home state of Joshua Karpeh and subject of his most recent musical endeavor, an album which takes his last name as its title.

Karpeh — whose stage name is Cautious Clay — released his second studio album, Karpeh, this past August, to acclaim by a variety of music magazines and opinionated listeners. The album is entirely separate from his debut, Deadpan Love; Karpeh leans into the genres of jazz and R&B while creating distance from the indie hip-hop that has typically been the backbone of Clay’s work. Instead, Karpeh takes listeners through the motions of what home means to him, magically imbued with lyrics that follow Clay’s own family history. This album feels personal, introspective, and deeply connected to a heart and soul.

30-year-old Clay has always been interested in finding the sweet spot between innovation in production and homage to the roots of jazz music. Despite having his single ‘Cold War’ sampled on Taylor Swift's album Lover in 2018 and (in a more ironic moment for Swift fans) collaborating with John Mayer on more than one occasion, Clay still enjoys a kind of indie status with a small but dedicated fanbase. Having worked with major indie-pop names like Still Woozy and Remi Wolf, Clay has become a shining example for high-quality production and unique melodies, with a slew of singles and EPs that range from acoustic to highly produced. If up until this point Clay’s roots in jazz have been mostly overshadowed by his pop tendencies, Karpeh brings them into the spotlight.

A kind of Jack-of-all-trades, Clay assumes a variety of roles across the album’s composition, from playing saxophone and flute, providing vocals, and generally arranging the album to be a thing of genuine beauty. His comfort in the production room is also more obvious than ever. ‘Karpehs Don’t Flinch’ is a short but striking instrumental where the saxophone does the singing and elements of dreamy shoegaze are invoked through a mastery of reverb and echo. Clay’s origins of building beats in his college dorm peek through here, and followers of his work might recognize some hints of the distinct electronic layering he pulls in from past singles like ‘Erase’ or ‘Dying in the Subtlety’. The electronic, beat-laden track is noticeably absent from Karpeh, however, further distinguishing it from any of his previous work and leaving behind fans of Clay’s more cosmic hip-hop tendencies.

There’s something so striking about Clay’s vocal abilities that it takes effort to listen past the surface and look at the lyrics, where he grapples with the concepts of lineage, self-reckoning, and growth. Peppered with interludes that include audio recordings of dialogue from members of his family, the 42-minute album feels like an intimate look into his relationship with home. When listeners move from an interlude like ‘Walls & a Roof (interlude)’ — in which we hear a recording of Karpeh talking about his family home being half-finished until he and his siblings pooled money to fix it — to ‘Unfinished House’ as a raw piece centred around vocals and featuring subtle backing with Julian Lage featured on a stripped guitar, it feels intentional. If we were to glance inside Clay’s head, my guess is that we would find a psychedelic mix of saxophone notes and genius hooks, scenes from his Ohio hometown and the time he poured into learning how to make music.

Clay recently signed with Blue Note Records, the label responsible for releasing albums by greats like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, who Clay has cited as being both inspirations and great innovators. This album is his debut with the label, which feels fitting as he reflects on family and perhaps joins a new, historically and personally significant one in the process. 

The jazz influence is particularly clear in ‘Tears of Fate’, ‘Ohio’, and ‘Yesterday’s Price’. The pieces invoke a kind of nostalgic familiarity, with elements of modernity and experimentation flecked throughout — for example, a piece might be bookended by audio clips, or backed with a more “typically Cautious Clay” vocal track, i.e. heady, angelic melodies. Clay keeps things contemporary but pays homage to the genre’s roots, ultimately crafting something that transcends the typical reach of pop with a jazz influence. 

The jewel of the album has to be ‘Yesterday’s Price’, featuring Immanuel Wilkins and Ambrose Akinmusire. Certainly the most ambitious of the 15 features, from the strong, wicked-quick trills of the saxophone to the full-bodied bridge, the song feels like it means something, imbued with a kind of desperate earnestness that the whole album has been building up to. The longest of the songs at 5:15, it is a testament to collaboration and the heart of the inspirations which Clay pulls from throughout the album. There is an appreciation for art and artist — as a multi-instrumentalist himself, Clay’s attention and devotion to bringing other artists into his work has never been clearer than on Karpeh, and the album is better for it.

As a whole, the album is remarkably consonant. The songs flow into each other quite pleasantly but can still be enjoyed on shuffle, or alongside other Cautious Clay songs. It’s distinct yet true to the sound that Clay has cultivated. Perhaps it’s the act of reflection or the idea of familial reckoning, but there is something stoic about Karpeh, something altogether grounded.

Listeners of Clay will unanimously agree that it’s his crystal-clear pitch and shiny vocals that stand out in every song he’s touched. Though Karpeh lacks some of the heavier-hitting singles of Clay’s past discography where bass and vocals were the focus, it makes up for it in heart. Simultaneously an introspective and a retrospective, Karpeh is unapologetic in establishing itself as a new chapter for Clay in every capacity, from the tangible excitement of a new label to the incorporeal sense of reckoning which pervades each piece. Clay bares his soul in Karpeh, and the sentiment doesn’t go unnoticed.