Grimm Lynn Creates Audio Gold With “Fire&Smoke”
“I been soul searching” are the first words uttered on Grimm Lynn’s latest album, “Fire&Smoke,” and it’s to set up just how much love is in the tank for passion, for pleasure, for love, for a significant other who absolutely captivates our souls. As Lauryn Hill said, “how you gonna win when you ain’t right within?” That active searching makes room for healthy relationships. It also creates space for some great, intimate, and honest art.
For TDN’s favorites of 2025 campaign, I noted “Fire&Smoke” by Grimm Lynn as my “song or project people may have missed.” I figured: why not write some words about it to further expound on why I feel this way? Let’s skip all the preamble and get right to it!
I’m a liar. Here’s some more preamble: a short disclaimer for the words in this blog post.
I am simply one collector’s edition deck in a magic shop amongst thousands of other doohickeys, gizmos & accessories. These thoughts are from my brain molecules and reflective of my perspective, but hey, perchance we vibe on a thing or two. Also, I cashed in like 6 Audible credits this past week… and still have 19 in the chamber because growing up with a scarcity mindset sometimes presents itself in the smallest ways as an adult. So apply all this to everything you’re about to read hitherto and henceforth or whatever.
Grimm Lynn clearly knew what the plan was when crafting “Fire&Smoke” as we receive 9 songs split in the middle by an interlude/skit/short to make it 10 joints on paper. The ‘fire’, being the first half, is music in the heat of love’s den with the fireplace lit (or the heat on high and ‘winter fireplace ambience’ visuals on the TV). The ‘smoke’, being the second half, is music to push through the pain of what remains after the fire.
“Lethal lover, you got good aim, one shot, got my heart”
The fan favorite (according to Spotify streams) is “Lost In U,” one of the singles that dropped just before the album. It can quickly be heard why. The tried and true sentiment of being lost in someone’s essence is a cliche that can unapologetically exist ‘til the end of time. If the intro track, “Palo Santo”, wasn’t sufficient enough to spike the yearn-o-meter, then Grimm only increases the potency with this one. And I gotta praise the beat, with shakers + cowbells leading the pace alongside soulful strings & brass/wind instruments fluttering in the background, yet still pronounced enough to make their presence felt.
Which is the perfect segue into the production. Much of it is laced with those shakers and hi-hats dancing around intentional melodies that match Grimm’s vocal choices really well. It makes “Fire&Smoke” an easy 30 minutes to vibe to. I’m never amazed but I am often comforted. Like how “Palo Santo” brings me back to “Best Of Me” by Anthony Hamilton. Or how some of the vibes in the top half make me want to stroll down Raphael Saadiq’s catalogue (after playing this album eight times).
“I miss you from a distance, you wanted space that’s why we don’t speak”
Personally, the second half of this project is my kind of pocket, as we start with a three-song sequence of tracks like “Lilies,” “Ballad 4 U,” and “Don’t Let Me Go” to tug at our heart strings. As much as I adore love, belting out songs like “Don’t Let Me Go” hits me in equally cathartic places as if singing about all the positives of love. So much so that “Don’t Let Me Go” is not only my favorite from this project but also one of my favorites in general for 2025. If you listen to nothing else from this album, let this one play a couple times.
“You don’t have to be alone, so call me when you’re ready, and I’ll be ready too”
“Fire&Smoke” is as far away from smoke & mirrors as one can get. Grimm Lynn takes us through the two sides of love in a way that we can feel all the emotions invested that led to it. This project dropped in November and Grimm Lynn should double- triple- quadruple- down on it heading into 2026. If this had been released mid-Spring, it would’ve did astronomical numbers in my listening history… ‘cus it already has in the past month. Surely we’ll see that reflected next year instead. And maybe even years to come.