The video for LaSalle Grandeur’s optimistic pop-rap single “Euphoria” shows the Chicago rapper gleefully traipsing through a huge empty field as a light breeze billows his unbuttoned shirt. “Euphoria” appears on Euphoric (Happily Depressed), an endearing EP that’s especially winning whenever Grandeur uses his exceptional grasp of melody to summon the blissful joy of that video; as if to underscore its celebratory nature, Grandeur dropped Euphoric on his 25th birthday. His cheerful hooks have a hard-to-pin-down, bittersweet subtext, as if tacitly acknowledging the emotional difficulties he had to overcome to find happiness. Atop the swelling, ascending synth notes of the sanguine “Emotional,” Grandeur briefly references sadness and world-crushing stress—but despite that subject matter, his wry delivery and uplifting flow make the track feel triumphant. v
LaSalle Grandeur’s sanguine songs can lift your pandemic-rattled spirits
