Calvin Valentine is a producer/singer/emcee who’s seen his career really grow over the last couple of years. After growing up in Eugene and spending a few years in Portland, he relocated to Los Angeles to take on the next step of his career. Recently, we’ve seen him produce an album for Illa J, Home, and drop a beat tape, Plush Seats, to announce his signing with Mello Music Group. Now he releases his first full-length album for the label, Keep Summer Safe.

When you press play on Keep Summer Safe, it won’t take long to see why people have been so excited for Calvin Valentine. He can sing, he can rap, his production is incredibly tight, and he’s got a great ear for pop hooks and melodies. It’s the type of album that sounds familiar from the moment you start listening to it. It also sounds incredibly bright and sunny, and just incredibly West Coast in its laid-back grooves. Valentine can hold your attention on a slower intimate song, and then come right back with one that bounces and will make you want to crank up the stereo it’s so hype. There are songs like “Choppers in the Sky,” which complex vocal arrangements on the hook and a slow jam feel, but then kick into some funky boom bap for rhymed versea, and then moves towards a bridge that goes into a dub direction with harmonica and guitar solos. In fact, while songs like “Bakery” are fun and bouncy and lighten up the album, it’s songs like “Freethrows,” featuring vocalist Danielle Henderson, another slow song, that really show what a talented producer and arranger Valentine is. The way he takes these incredibly rich and beautiful vocal harmonies and then plays them against some aggressive turntable scratching, underscores that with some gentle Fender Rhodes chord progressions, and then finally uses some scorching guitar at the end as element of chaos works out brilliantly. Sonically, you’ll be hard pressed to find another album that works so well as a pop album but is also so incredibly complex and weird at the same time. Lyrics might be Valentines weakest point, and at first glance you might just think he rhymes about weed and making music, and he is, but when you pay a little more attention to the subtleties, you can hear a young man trying to keep his head on straight as he confronts his fears and tries to not let his initial success phase him or change him for the worse.

The biggest problem with Keep Summer Safe is that we didn’t get this album all summer long. Calvin Valentine is only going to become more in demand as a producer, but it’s his overall musicianship that makes this album so compelling. It’s fun, it’s easy to listen to, and it bangs, but its also intimate, inventive, and challenging.