Trav Torch is a butter-smooth R&B vocalist, a songwriter of formidable seductive power, and a magnetic screen presence. Like the video for “Give It To Me Baby” demonstrates, he also possesses an impeccable hand-washing technique. In a year as strange as 2020, that’s something to brag about. Alas, the Maplewood, NJ singer and inveterate love man is up against the same constraints we all are: curfews and lockdowns, long nights in quarantine, and the daily uncertainty of a global health crisis. But he’s not about to let the fun stop, and he’s inviting you in on it. Even if he and his girlfriend need to use smartphones and tablets to do it, they’re determined to keep the party going.
Makeout music is Trav’s specialty, his focus, and maybe his obsession: on his Bachelor Life series of albums, he’s forthright and unsparing in the articulation of his desires. “Sex Tape,” “Lust,” “Naked,” “Screaming Out My Name” – on these songs, and others like them, he establishes himself as an unparalleled craftsman of bedroom anthems. “Give It To Me Baby” picks up right where these other tracks leave off; it’s a slow, smoldering, near-psychedelic expression of late-night longing and sexual passion. Everything here is a sonic equivalent of rose petals, bubble baths, and satin sheets: the twinkling piano, the echoed finger-snaps, the bass throbs, the gauzy synthesizers, the silky backing vocals, and Trav’s carnal lead. As always, he leaves no doubt about exactly what he wants and how he wants it.
Yet the pandemic has been particularly hard on lovers. In the wry Troophouse Films clip for “Give It To Me Baby,” Trav returns home to an empty house; it’s clear he’s got love on his mind, but there’s nobody to give it to. His girlfriend, holed up elsewhere, faces a similar predicament. They’ve got the will, and the mood lighting (hers is a gorgeous shade of hot pink), but they’re forced to turn to FaceTime, revealing outfits, and presentation in front of the camera. Eventually, Trav Torch and his girl contrive a way to be together in the flesh. By the end of the clip, he’s made his point: just because the world has descended into crisis doesn’t mean that the loving stops.
