Album: Fuck The World

Artist: Brent Faiyaz

Genre: R&B

Record Labels: Lost KiDs

Recommended Tracks: Track 4 – Fuck The World (Summer in London) and Track 5- Let Me Know

Christopher Brent Woods, better known as Brent Faiyaz, is a 24 year old musician from the DMV who has piloted his fair share of suave buttery choruses. If you don’t recognize the name, you’ve likely heard his vocal stylings on the GoldLink song “Crew” which utilized Faiyaz on sticky hook that exudes braggadocio and confidence. The DMV players anthem hit 45 on the Billboard Hot 100, which is still GoldLink’s peak chart performance (as well as Faiyaz’s). Faiyaz has lent his guest vocals to choruses on quite a few rap tracks, much in the tradition of the up and coming R&B artist trying to draw on two genres shared audience. Namely, he was featured on a few of his late labelmate Juice WRLD’s songs across his first two projects. Fuck The World is Faiyaz’s second commercial album, his first being the heartfelt yet uncatchy and ultimately forgetable Sonder Son. On this album Faiyaz trends away from all-encompassing autobiography across various time periods of his life for a more simplistic examination of his current lifestyle of unsatisfactory excess, coping through drug use, and being what he calls an “empathic narcissist”. I would give this album a 2/5, as while think the narratives and themes that Faiyaz engages with are interesting and well developed within individual songs despite the album’s briefness, Faiyaz’s musical stylings just aren’t that engaging to me, and his commonplace subject matter and sound make him blend into the background of the multiplicity of similar R&B acts

My first standout track from this project is the (sort of) title track “Fuck The World (Summer in London)”. This track is an essential summation of many of the albums essential themes. Faiyaz says in the tracks first lines after an ever so original lighter clicks over faint sample intro, “(I wanna) fuck the world I’m a walking erection, spend without a thought we do it reckless”. Essentially, Faiyaz is quite promiscuous and is possessed by his gargantuan sexual appetite, therefore he is a walking erection. Secondly, he spends lavishly and without thought. These are both revealed throughout the album, Faiyaz’s discography, and some of the promotional/explicatory material around Faiyaz’s discography as coping mechanisms for the fundamental mistrust Faiyaz feels for those around him, Faiyaz’s aforementioned personality “flaws”, and Faiyaz’s struggle with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts. This is a narrative essential to modern rap, and yet I don’t think Faiyaz’s contributions are unwelcome. For one, Faiyaz makes it clear that his music is based on lived experiences and personal truths. He’s not parroting platitudes, he’s documenting his own genuine experience with these issues which are common rap fodder. However, while Faiyaz’s lyrical take is individual, compelling, and personal, his musical decisions might as well be algorithmic. Faiyaz has been penalized before in critical writing for lack of experimentation, and I don’t think that’s more apparent anywhere than this album. Faiyaz sounds like he’s trying to expand his personal lease on his niche of R&B, and he describes himself as genreless, however he doesn’t dare venture into any unfamiliar or even interesting instrumentation.

My second standout track directly follows my last on the tracklist. “Let Me Know” utilizes some cozy piano melodies, which really compliment Faiyaz’s often unnoteworthy vocals. The song questions how Faiyaz is expected to love someone when “They tell [him] he can’t love [himself]”. The song is an anthem of love being an all powerful force that can trump all the world’s injustices, which is a classic song concept however Faiyaz executes it simply and tastefully. The drums on this track are a perfect encapsulation of its smooth simplicity, as they follow a very simple pattern but are just crisp and groovy enough to drive the song.

If Faiyaz wants to preserve his longevity on subsequent projects, I hope he is able to find the same truthfulness and individuality in his musical voice that he has found in his actual one. Especially when Faiyaz is attempting to add to a narrative cannon that is so essential to the genres of rap and R&B, it’s difficult to approach him as more than a replication of an archetype or cliche when his production is indistinguishable from his contemporaries. If you like Brent Faiyaz, I would check out SiR, Leven Kali, or Berhana, who I’ve reviewed before. I’d definitely check out this album if you need a break from the hollowness of exorbitant spending and sexual escapades, or are a fan of The Weeknd or other similarly unapologetically narcissistic acts.

Album: Endless

Artist: Frank Ocean

Genre: R&B

Record Label(s): Def Jam Recordings

Recommended Tracks: Track 9*-Wither and Track 15*-Rushes

Frank Ocean emerged from the chaos of the odd future collective as one of the most prominent and individual voices within modern popular music. His reclusive persona, erratic releases, cult like following online, and of course the tragic, spacious beauty of his music have fomented a palpable mystique surrounding the man, his music, and everything he does. Frank’s debut solo mixtape, nostalgia, ULTRA. Was self- released via the odd future website in 2011. The mixtape pieces together prominent samples and interpolations of music that was important to Frank in his youth. While it is easy to write off some of this project as derivative, undeveloped, and even immature at points, there are some absolutely gorgeous moments across the project that forecast the songwriting prowess, conceptual construction, and raw talent that would turn Frank into a global superstar. Frank’s debut album. Channel Orange was released to much fanfare by the Odd Future and existing Frank Ocean fans, however this album really shot him into the national consciousness (although “Novacane” off of nostalgia, ULTRA. was a favorite for critics in 2011, and having been a part of Odd Future Frank was already well known, especially amongst teens/young adults). Channel Orange is a reference to the color Frank most strongly associates with his first time falling in love, and the album certainly conjures the warmth, beauty, innocence, and potent sexuality that I’m sure many would associate with their first love. The album wins a Grammy, Frank comes out in a letter that he released with the album, and the path to R&B superstardom seemed all but fulfilled. However, Frank had become disenchanted with the glamour, the award shows, the fanfare, belonging to a record label,  the constructs and pressure of fame, and for these and countless other potential reasons, Frank isn’t heard from much at all for 4 years. Most other artists would have their careers stunted by this kind of absence from both the limelight and from producing music, and Frank very well could’ve been had his silence been broken by a different project. However, tin the summer of 2016, a couple live streams of a warehouse with random positions of ambient noise, welding sounds, someone walking in front of the camera, and several other oddities sprang up on Frank’s personal website. The internet exploded with anticipation, wondering what these cryptic hints within the livestream could mean, writing words they thought they heard within the ambient noise, piecing together numbers within the background, and then all of a sudden on August 19, 2016, Frank dropped Endless, a video album featuring lo-fi production techniques, avant-garde aesthetics, spacious and sparse instrumentation, and the much refined rapping and singing of one Frank Ocean. The next day, Frank released Blonde, which was a much more straightforward album, with less lo-fi obscuring and with clearly more polish and deliberate songwriting. It was revealed that Frank had released Endless to fulfill his contract with Def Jam so he could release Blonde independently. The world raved at the genius move, and Endless was relegated being obsessed over by Frank Ocean fans on reddit, while Blonde debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. While I love Blonde tremendously and it was extremely important to my development as a person as well as a listener of music, I think Endless is too often overlooked as a clever workaround by Frank, and not as the masterpiece it is within itself. Overall, I’d give Endless a 5/5, however if you haven’t already guessed by this point, I’m extremely partial to anything with Frank’s fingerprints on it. 

My first standout track is “Wither”, which I would almost say leans towards poetic vignette in its song structure. The bright strings (played by Alex G) and the faint female vocalizations in the background serve to add texture to the space in which Frank exists. Space is very important within the original mix of this album, as some things certainly seem closer, further, more or less obscured, and of course the whole album has the visual accompaniment of a warehouse, which means each track is atmospheric and spatially oriented in a very audible way. While the atmosphere on this track is gorgeous, as is Frank’s singing, for me it’s the lyrics that really separate this cut. I implore you to go and listen to the song or read them yourself, but generally the song is about the wish to have kids and allow them to see your warmth, as well as the space in which you created that warmth, and then for them to see you “wither”. The song title has a double-meaning embedded within it, in that wither can also be heard as “with-her”. This song is as avant-garde, poetic, and reserved as the rest of Endless, but my personal interpretation is Frank is meditating on the space created within love, and the ephemerality of that space, as well as the ephemerality and subjectivity of the human experience itself. In other words, Frank knows his time is limited, and he hopes his children get a chance to see his happiness and who he is and the things he loves before he wastes away, therefore in some way preserving him and the love he has felt. 

My second standout track is Rushes, which again is so meditative, poetic, and shapeless that it’s hard to describe its beauty. However this track is very similar compositionally to Wither, as Alex G takes the lead instrumentation, and Jazmine Sullivan lends her vocals to the soundscape. This song is about so many things. Wanting to matter, wanting to cease existing, living in polar emotional extremes, emotional stagnation, and countless other possible meanings gleaned from lyrical interpretation. Frank’s songwriting is so emotional and intimate, and his singing is just as emotive, which allows these tracks to have a poetic relativism to the listener. These songs have meant so many different things to me at different times. In one moment, a lyric might hit you exactly where you need it, or connect to you with a haunting intimacy amplified by the spaciousness of the sound. On Endless, Frank masters allowing space in the mix for the listener, which is something he also employs on Blonde, but I’d say the sonic palette of Endless lends itself even better to this practice.Overall, if this album missed you or you’ve only sort of watched the stream, I would go find the CD Quality tracks online and give it a listen. As progressive as Blonde is within its sound, I think Endless takes risks and combines ideas that I haven’t seen replicated anywhere else. While avant garde is a term that has been repeated to the point of obliviating any pure sentiment or meaning, the challenges Frank makes towards the typical structures of music and what is important within a song creates such a unique potency within Endless. If you like Frank Ocean, specifically Endless, I would check out some of this album’s collaborators, such as Alex G, Vegyn, or Sampha. I definitely would revisit this album whenever you’re in the mood for solitary meditation, or need a new soundtrack for crying in the shower.

Album: La Linda

Artist: Tei Shi 

Genre: Alternative R&B

Record Label(s): Downtown Records

Recommended Tracks: Track 3-Even If It Hurts and Track 11-We

Valerie Teicher Barbosa, better known as Tei Shi, has been a favorite amongst critics since her first couple singles that she dropped in 2013. Tei Shi exceeds at crafting soft, detailed, and lush pop that employs elements of synth pop, R&B, reggaeton (specifically dembow rhythm), as well as a bevy of other eclectic sound palettes. Barbosa is a Jewish Colombian-Canadian woman, and her diverse cultural identity shows itself across her discography. For example, while she usually sticks to signing in english, little bits of Spanish, as well as “Matando” a full Spanish song off of this album, appear speckled throughout her work. Tei Shi has been known to compose and produce, however on this album she doesn’t have any credits as a producer. However, she leaves the production to a group of outstanding talents, such as Daniel Aged, Noah Beresin of Chiddy Bang fame, and Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange. Overall, I’d give this album a ⅗, as sometimes the minimal instrumentation contrasted with Tei Shi’s soft singing create delicate and gorgeous cuts with enough understatement and intricacy as to appear avant garde and masterful. However, Tei Shi’s underwhelming vocals and the lush soft dreaminess of songs can also turn lots of tracks into soupy, nebulous, and even boring experiences. 

My first standout track is by far my favorite on the album, Even If It Hurts featuring Blood Orange with vocals and production. This song sounds a lot like a cut on which Dev might have landed on his last project Angel’s Pulse. This track exemplifies why aesthetic appraisals such as gorgeous, smooth, and lush, are so often applied to Tei Shi’s music. The drums on this track are hypnotic and driving, and are a perfect grounding exposition to the glitziness of the rest of the track. Dev Hynes shows why his blend of airy vocals, proud piano lines, and synthy meandering have been so enrapturing. While neither Dev or Tei Shi are amazing as vocalists, the sticky melodies and wonderful production more than atone for this. If this realm of music is of interest to you at all, I would strongly implore you to not make this a track you miss.

My other standout track is the one piloted by Daniel Aged, who recently worked on Frank Ocean’s much anticipated “DHL”. The track opens with bird sounds and a couple warm reverberating guitar chords. Tei Shi then closes her album with this short poetic strong that leaves me wondering what potential she has as a songwriter along with her already impeccable production sensibilities. I interpret this song as being about Tei Shi’s experience of being a woman, and how she has been subliminally coerced into negative self conception. One of the most biting lyrics is “The confidence they take away from we, it should be criminal, it’s so subliminal” which shows the collective experience of being subjugation that women have the burden of sharing. The song closes by rolling out some dark synths and looping some distorted noise that sort of sounds like pressurized air, and then finally the album closes as simplistically as it began, with bird noises.

Overall, I think Tei Shi relies a lot on the gorgeous production that she and her collaborators are able to create, and due to this her presence on the track often feels muted and lacking. I mean, understated airy vocals are very in vogue currently, however I can think of many more compelling vocalists and songwriters I’d like to see over this production. I think Tei Shi assumes a large effort on the listener to pick apart and recreate meaning from her poetic, vague, faint lyrics and singing, and while that has definitely worked for others and is an interesting approach to songwriting, I just don’t find many of the tracks compelling enough to want to revisit them enough times to find deeper meanings or small sonic modifications or cool mixing on sounds. However, on a few tracks I think concessions to conventional music practices and driving drums help songs maintain enough structure to allow the otherwise lovely production Tei Shi employs to shine. If you like Tei Shi, I would definitely check out Blood Orange if you somehow haven’t already, as well as Tennis, and potentially TOPS. If you want something light and beautiful to listen to in the background while doing something else, I think this album is definitely worth a listen.

Album: HAN

Artist: Berhana

Genre: R&B

Record Label(s): EQT Recordings

Recommended Tracks: Track 5-I Been and Track 10-G2g

Amain Berhane, aka Berhana, is one of the most colorful and exciting voices coming up in the R&B and pop scene (although he objects to the concept of genre). Berhana does not limit his artistic voice just to music, as he initially sought to pursue screenwriting while attending The New School in New York. Berhana’s cinematic vision is obvious when watching his music videos, one of which, Janet, was instrumental in orchestrating Berhana’s meteoric rise after his self-released, self-titled debut EP. However, as Berhana has stated in multiple interviews, he doesn’t just approach the visual content that accompanies his music with the eye of a screenwriter or director, but his music itself is supposed to portray a vivid and coherent picture to the listener. When speaking about his aforementioned 6-track EP, he said “I guess for me, it’s kind of a project about growth. I wanted to make something that almost felt like a documentary.”¹ This is an artistic vision that he definitely carries over onto the project in question, HAN, which is much more streamlined than the vignette style songwriting of his EP. The concept of the album is that the listener is on a plane ride, with 5 different spoken interludes done in the style of an automated pre-flight safety announcement acting as the album’s skeleton, and introducing the theme or themes that will be explored within the next few tracks. Berhana spoke recently in an interview about how this album was supposed to feel like a direct continuation of the narrative he started crafting on his debut EP, and also hinted that his next project will also tie into whatever lore or storyline he may be sculpting. When asked what the concept of this album was, he said “ I always wanted it to be this kind of journey. The very last line in “Grey Luh” [the last song on his EP] is “cop this one way out to Mexico, cause you compress my soul and call it love.” So I knew that I wanted this next thing to feel like a journey and feel like an experience.”² So each song represents a leg of a journey, and much like a hero within a cinematic arc, berhana exhibits change throughout the course of the album. Overall, I’d give this album a 3.5/5. While Berhana delivers a far more polished and musically competent product on HAN, I do think the genuine, unkempt, hazy aesthetic of his debut EP as well as the stickiness of many of the hooks on that project that made Berhana such a refreshing and electric new voice are lost to some of the refinement. However, I also applaud the shift to more production done by Berhana himself, as well as the major innovations Berhana has made to his sound in order to show his multifaceted talent and ability. 

My first standout track is one of the singles, I Been, which features vocals from Korean RnB artist Crush. This is one of the tracks more reminiscent of Berhana’s 2016 sound. The track opens with bright synth over rolling wave sounds, and only gets bopier when the drums and Berhana’s simplistic but catchy verse and chorus join the composition. This song doesn’t shine based off of lyrical density, but the simple and bouncy instrumentation and accompanying beachy embellishments should definitely land this song on your playlist the next time you’re planning to cruise down the PCH (ideally in a 1967 Chevy Bel Air, and even more ideally a baby blue one). 

G2g or got to go is definitely my favorite track on the album. Immediately I was struck by the beginning, which abandons Berhana’s typical lush, smooth, and sunny instrumental palette for driving punchy guitars, and Berhana comes in and lays down a shouty pained verse about trying to escape this failed relationship. It sounds way more reminiscent of something that would’ve come out of the catalogue of someone like Bakar than anything Berhana has done. However, as fun as the energy of the first half of the track is, the true gems of the song lie in some of the later parts. This song perfectly showcases the growth of Berhana’s scope, musicality, and sonic sensibilities. After the first part, we are greeted by wavering and atmospheric vocals repeating the same refrain, trancing the listener into a dreamy lull, and then out of this a drum and bass break springs forth, with some super compelling bass licks, and a generally really fascinating and dense atmosphere about it. This song illustrates Berhana’s insane potential to craft songs driven by storytelling, and eliciting specific images within the mind of the listener. It truly feels like a score to something, and if you like this song I’d definitely check out the music video to see that realized.  Berhana has shown the ability to create intricately crafted yet bare distillations of intimate moments and spaces within his life, and has translated that approach well to a larger more ambitious project. While this project isn’t as undeniably catchy as his debut mixtape, many of the risks he takes in increasing his ambition and adding complexity to his songwriting payoff. On future projects, I’m excited to see how Berhana develops his cinematic approach to songwriting and what perspective he decides to treat listeners to, as well as seeing how he contrasts the plain soulfulness that ignited his career on his first project, and the more developed musical concepts he employs on this album. If you like Berhana, I would go ahead and check out Choker, early Masego (especially ThePink Polo EP), Blood Orange, and Toro y Moi. This album is definitely worth a listen if you enjoy R&B of any sort, especially if you’re looking for something to keep your summer vibes alive even as the calendar rolls further and further away from days of sunny bliss.

Album: Truth Is

Artist: Sabrina Claudio

Genre: R&B

Record Label(s): Atlantic Records and RedOne Records

Recommended Tracks: Track 4-Hurt People and Track 8-As Long As You’re Asleep

Sabrina Claudio is an up and coming R&B artist whose mix of polished and nocturnal pop production, driving rhythms, and high-pitched heartbroken balladry has garnered her a sizeable fanbase, critical intrigue, and a slew of producers and songwriters with some pop hits under their belts (i.e. Stint, Sir Nolan, Stephen Moccio) willing and eager to collaborate with her. Claudio first found slivers of spotlight through her song covers that she posted to Twitter, Soundcloud, and Youtube. The few of her covers I could find were clear stylistic antecedents to her current work, with less lush developed production and more apparent influences. Claudio’s love and affinity for music started in the world of dance, specifically the salsa and merengue that are near inescapable in the streets of her native Miami. Her musical sensibilities were furthered by her love of R&B, more specifically some of the powerhouses of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, such as Lauryn Hill, Usher, Boyz II Men, Alicia Keys, etc. Within her newer music she doesn’t travel too far down the path of genre fusion, however her love of rhythm across genres can be seen by her adherence to strong backbeats in contrast with the slower, moodier sounds she elects throughout most of her catalogue. On October 4th, Claudio released her debut album, Truth Is. She has three previously released mixtapes under her belt, Confidently Lost. About Time, and No Rain, No Flowers, which were all released in 2017 and 2018. Truth Is finds Claudio in her dreariest of states yet, with each song being a different rumination on the loss of love and the multi-faceted pain that she is experiencing during her process of coping with this loss. To call it a breakup album might be slightly reductive, as each song delves into a different situation, and while the theme of anguish is strongly embedded within the album, it isn’t omnipresent across the track list. Overall I’d give this latest venture a 3 out 5, as Claudio finds hypnotizing and compelling recesses within her sound, however her sound lacks the individual sonic identity that it needs to differentiate itself from the vast field of woozy, airy-voiced pop and R&B that have coloured the top of the charts as of late.

“Hurt People” is definitely the first standout track for me. It follows the star-driven Rumors with ZAYN, which doesn’t quite capitalize on its potential. The track opens with the surprising production choice of nearly naked, meandering guitar, with pluckiness and spaciousness reminiscent of some of the tracks on Rihanna’s ANTI. While not completely out of left field, the variance in pallette is much appreciated within the record, which does tend to stay much more within a specific mood than past Claudio projects. While this does create more articulated and conceptual record, it also leads to some sense of plodding through the same territory without a ton of innovation. “Hurt People” centers around two lovers who just can’t seem to get it right despite the fact that they are all each other have, due to the fact that they are “hurt people”. Again, this is not a frontier songwriting that hasn’t been explored in depth, however Claudio does paint a tragic yet beautiful picture of learning how to love despite past damage that impairs said ability. The layering of the vocals in the second half of the track act as a sort of calm explosion out of the sparse production, and truly color the painful experience of hurting the only person she loves.

In contrast, Track 8 “As Long As You’re Asleep” seems initially to be one of  the brighter spots on the album. The song starts with a couple sunny piano chords, and Claudio flexing her control within the higher register of her voice, and then a strong computerized drumline kicks the song into gear. Initially, the song sounds like a poetic and dreamy ballad of adoration, like the kind of thing one would sing from the garden below their lover’s balcony (for example, the opening sounds a lot like “Japanese Denim” by Daniel Caesar). However, when the chorus hits the contrast between the sound of the song and the torment it describes comes to light. Essentially, Claudio now derives comfort in the early hours of the morning, as she knows that her ex-lover is asleep , because at least that way he’s not giving his new girl what he gave her, whether that be sexual or otherwise. The last two tracks (not including the bonus track) of the album mark later stages of Claudio’s grieving process, however this morsel of comfort can almost be marked as her lowest point in this process. The subversion of the dark lyrical content with the major chords and generally cheerful disposition of the song creates a really interesting track that captures Claudio’s potential as a songwriter. 

I hope Claudio strays a little bit from the beaten path of R&B starlet-ism, as in her best moments she mixes skillful songwriting, eclectic influences, strong vocal control, and decisive and deliberate production decisions to make some genuinely interesting songs. However, her potential is obscured upon early listens to this project, as she blends in so easily to the rising faces post-Lorde pop scene. Truth Is doesn’t mark a misstep in her discography, as it is a genuinely enjoyable project, however it doesn’t command attention in the way that I think she’s capable of doing. If you like Sabrina Claudio I would recommend listening to Jorja Smith, Kali Uchis, or Ella Mai. This album is definitely worth a listen if you’re a fan of pop but want something with a moody spin, or generally want to keep up with potential faces of tomorrow’s pop scene.