Album: Chilombo 

Artist: Jhené Aiko 

Genre: R&B 

Record labels: Def Jam Recordings, Epic Records, The Island Def Jam Music Group, The 

Ultimate Group 

Recommend Tracks: Track 11- Tryna smoke, Track 11- Lightning and thunder 

Jhené Aiko is an American singer and songwriter, who made her debut by making appearances in B2K. Her album is titled Chilombo after her last name. Jhené Aiko is known to deliver smooth melodies and quotable lyrics. This album does not disappoint. I give this album a 5/5 because lyrically and vocally pleasant. The tracks I recommend “Tryna Smoke” and “Lightning and Thunder” show the full scope of the album. From one spectrum it’s the relaxation you get from using marijuana, and the calmness from a storm. The lyrics from “Lighting and Thunder”, “ Burning incense just to wish you well” shows Jhené’s positive spirit. I like all the songs on this album and I recommend everyone give it a listen. 

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: Chixtape 5
Artist: Tory Lanez
Genre: R&B
Record label(s): Mad Love & Interscope Records
Recommended Tracks: Track 3-Jerry Sprunger and Track 6-The Take

Tory Lanez is a R&B singer from Brampton, Canada. He is 27 years old and first started to gather musical attention and fame in 2016 from his single, “Say It”. So it’s safe to say that Tory Lanez has been known for his R&B touch and he continues that in, “Chixtape 5”. The album as a whole is just great to listen to. It gives you everything you would want and expect to hear, while also having many surprises as well. The biggest of the surprises was the remixes version of T Pain’s classic song, “I’m Sprung.” But aside from just that’s Track Tory carries over that early 2000’s type or R&B in this album. If I were to rate this album I would give it a 9 out of 10 because of the overall vibe and flow of the album. I find the entire album to be really vibey and relaxing with the features on the album being really fitting as well.

“Jerry Sprunger” is the third track off the album and seems to be everyone’s favorite. It is basically a remixed version of T Pain’s iconic single song “I’m Sprung”. With this being the first time ever that T Pain has ever remixed it. It has that really slow and loving vibe that can just set you in a good mood and Tory seems to be adding his own R&B touch to it himself, giving a little
mix up from the original song.

“The Take” is a song off the album that features another big time R&B artist, Chris Brown. Tory & Chris both collab on this track to give an all around great song and something exactly what you would expect from the two as they don’t happen to disappoint. Tory starts the song off with his own verse and let’s Chris Brown carry the song throughout with the chorus. This song is a great one to listen to and could be found as being really really relaxing.
Tory Lanez uses the 2000’s R&B throwback sort of flow to bring a sense of nostalgia to his album. He does this with the use of smooth beats and silky vocals. And this is also really appealing to the generation that grew up during the early 2000s. If you like Tory Lanez I would recommend listening to artists like Chris Brown, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Drake, Jacquees, & Bryson Tiller. Overall if you like the idea of an artist reflecting off of 2000s R&B you should definitely check out Tory Lanez and his newest album, “Chixtape 5”.

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: YOU

Artist: Ali Gatie

Genre: R&B/Soul

Record label(s): Warner records 

Recommended Tracks: Track 1- It’s You Track 8- “Holding On”

Ali Gatie is a Canadian performer who was born in 1997 in the city of Toronto. He started to listen to music at the age of 17. At age 20, he started to post his music online and started to collaborate with other producers, but he gained recognition from the RhymeStars song contest he won. He used this fame and released several tracks online and they went viral. He has been releasing tracks since 2017 and albums including his most recent being “YOU” on November 7th, 2019.  This album continues with the same theme and style of Soul and R&B music he has been producing which is a very enjoyed style on the radio now. Ali has a unique vibe to his music. This album includes previously released songs that have been popular. His songs about mainly about personal experiences told by raw lyrics that are companied by sound music. “YOU” follows the same theme of love, the turmoil, and amazing experiences it offers. This style of music is the reason why he spiked as an artist and has gained such a big following, he is able to connect with his listeners through his own feelings. If I were to rate this album, I would rate it a 5 out of 5 because of the music, it feels very soothing and calm, plus, the lyrics feel like a lot of heart and soul was poured into them, making it feel so personal. 

“It’s You” is the first song on the album and the most popular since Ali released it as a single. This song has a low vibe song that projects a lot of hurt feelings. The lyrics in the song repeat a lot of hurting and vulnerability, but also a lot of hope of love. The music starts off a guitar and another guitar playing a really saddening chord that gives the song a sad vibe from the start, it continues with a mainly acoustic ensemble of instruments that gives the song a minimal feel to it, making it even more saddening. The song is well made and it shows how much emotion and how much if himself Ali has put into this song.  

“Holding On” is the 8th song on the album. This song has a much more loud vibe to it and uses more sounds that feel like the world is falling on you. The loud thuds and echos feel as if you are surrounded by large objects and it makes you feel powerless, which is what Ali is saying in his lyrics, he feels powerless when it comes to wanting to move on, he is stuck on loving someone. The desperation is felt in this song and it feels sad and lonely. The lyrics express a lot of hope for his love. This song mirrors “It’s You” but it expresses how he still has hope even after a loss. 

Ali Gatie is a young man who uses his emotions as a guide in producing his music, which is unique and different from anything else. His style markets well to a younger generation, with personal experiences and low vibe music, most people could relate to it, especially the younger generation. “YOU” is an album that describes Ali’s love journey of falling in love up to acknowledging the loss of his love. The album has a sad and slow feel that makes the listener reminisce about their love and have a chance to express their emotions. If you liked the personal feel of the music, then I’d recommend listening to Tessa Violet and Waterparks. Overall, if you enjoyed an album that you can listen to when you feel sad and are hurting, you should listen to Ali Gatie’s recent album, “YOU”.