The annals of pop and R&B aren’t exactly lacking in heavy-breathing come-ons. But never let it be said that Vancouver soul-barer Calvyn Cass does things the old-fashioned way. His new single, “Ménage à Trois,” is a literal banger of the sort that have been making folks do the deed since time immemorial. It’s just that this time, there happen to be three of them.
“So what are you cravin’?” Cass lustfully inquires, on behalf of himself and a partner who’s equally hot to trot with an alluring stranger. “We got a room waitin’/ Let’s take a bae-cation.”
The gauntlet duly thrown, our clever little Lothario makes the picture even clearer with some basic math:
So tell me what it’s gonna be
You plus us adds up to three
It’s the musical equivalent of being bought a drink by that couple who saw you from across the bar and liked your vibe—only this time, you get to imagine them being as hot as your mind would prefer. There’s certainly nothing plain about the music, which stomps and implores up a storm, stopping only for some wicked bass slurs that repeatedly bring the (brick) house down.
Chalk it all up as mission accomplished for Cass, who says his agenda is to combine the lyrical fixations of ’90s pop with instrumental arrangements that bridge the gap between the early 2000s and today. Only there are no “blurred lines” here: This one’s all about consent. LOTS of consent.
The track is the product of a fevered writing session between Cass, superstar producer Adam H. (Ray J, Ne-Yo, Def Leppard) Don Wolf (lead singer of ‘80s major-label metalers White Wolf and a past collaborator with acts like Bon Jovi, Poison and Motley Crue) and one Jess Edo, whom Cass counts as both his most frequent writing partner and a close friend. (Hey, now we’re up to a foursome!) And to hear him tell it, things … er, flowed naturally between all of them.
“I came into the session wanting something fun and sexy and presented that to the group,” Cass says. “I’m in a throuple, so I suggested we make a fun song about that. Everyone loved the idea, so we ran with it.”
You couldn’t ask for a more forceful lead-in to Cass’ forthcoming album, Every Kind Chapter One: Reigning Stars. A loose concept record about the blissful honeymoon period of a relationship, the album has cuts produced by both Adam H. and Dave Genn of 54-40 and the Matthew Good Band. Its contents were previewed last fall with the release of “Hollywood Calls,” a sultry Left Coast curb crawl that was yet another collaboration between Cass and Edo. With that kind of one-two punch preceding it, the album is sure to connect. But really, Cass has been on a roll since his first single, “ME, Myself and I,” came out in 2020. In the ensuing four years, he’s racked up 1.16 million Spotify streams and half a million YouTube views, been a fixture on the German blues charts (!) for a 10-month stretch, and reached a whopping 15 million viewers as a guest performer for the TRND app.
Best of all, he’s doing it his way. A self-professed disciple of Elton John and David Bowie, Cass is proudly gender-fluid and avoids using pronouns in his music, to keep the emotions it imparts universal. Oh, and about the “Chapter One” in that album title: Yes, there’s going to be a Chapter Two. It’s going to explore the more difficult stage of a relationship, when the bloom is off the rose and you have to make some hard decisions to keep going. And after that?
“Part three comes much later,” Cass says. “I don’t feel anywhere near ready to talk about someone’s end-of-life experience with love just yet. My heart tells me I should wait it out and do a bit more living first.”
Sounds like he’s been doing plenty of living already.
