Chasing Summer - SiR: Review
is a California R&B singer who signed to Top Dawg records in 2017 after scoring features on Top Dawg artists Jay Rock and Isaiah Rashad's records. He released his major label debut album last year with November which didn't make a ton of noise. For the release of Chasing Summer SiR signed a joint promotional deal with major label RCA records, who turned SZA's CTRL into a mega hit, and hopes to follow in her footsteps with his third studio record.
Review By Lavender:
I was excited for SiR last year given that he was signed to a label that had released Damn, CTRL and Do What Thou Wilt in the two years before it, but the record turned out to be far too generic for its own good and only really feel its attachment to the label on a few tracks. Since then Top Dawg has hit a bit of a rough patch missing on Jay Rock's Redemption and missing HARD on Schoolboy Q's Crash Talk and I was worried going into this record. Now that the album is out I can see the worry was for good reason as this thing is just as generic as its predecessor and even more bloated.
A good bit of this record falls into some very obvious categories, whether he is biting another artist painfully like the 6lack rip off John Redcorn or the decent Anderson .Paak bite Mood. Songs so uninspired or generic that it is hard to say much of anything about them at all, from trap flavored snoozers like You Can't Save Me or touch Down. Or even one of the repeated times SiR tries to throw it back to the 2000's era of R&B and misses a number of times on songs like Fire, Still Blue and The Recipe.
Almost all the good songs on the record either have a feature to break-up the monotony or to give the track anything worthwhile to begin with. Hair Down was the lead single to this thing and a song where I can admire SiR for taking risks with what ultimately came out as a decent bop. Kendrick gives a strange but animated performance that I can't help but be intrigued by and even though I'm not really head over heels for any element of the track it is a pretty solid single and intro cut. La Lisa is by no means a good song and badly needs its instrumental to be played at about double speed as both the verses and chorus are total drags, but at the tail end of this thing Smino drops a very solid verse and for a rapper I'm not typically in love with as a featured artist I'm happy he pulled it off here.
New Sky reaches for a similar sonic approach as much of the rest of the album but simply pulls it off better with more interesting vocals that lend really well to the track and a featured singer that provides a great change of pace to round the track out. Lucy's Love is one of the best songs here and it actually features SiR dropping some serious bars in a rapping voice that we don't hear nearly enough across this record. Lil Wayne of all people features on this track and delivers a rapid fire lowkey verse that goes a little bit too heavy on the vocal effects but comes out solid on the other end nonetheless.
That's Why I Love You is a genuine ballad that features a lot of lyrical chemistry between the artists but is held back by a pretty dreadful and lifeless instrumental. Despite the instrumental shortcomings I do enjoy hearing SiR and Sabrina trade off refrains and it makes for a song that has at least some interesting elements to it. LA may be the best song on the entire record and as the closing track I was always looking forward to hearing it. It reminds me a ton of Childish Gambino's Awaken My Love with its warm and hearty R&B sound that is actually pulled of really well. It also has one of the only hooks on the record here that is a truly catchy vocal refrain that makes the song not feel like twice its runtime.
Chasing Summer does not follow in the footsteps of some of SiR's fellow Top Dawg artists who broke through before him. The album has way too many underwritten or wandering songs that make for nothing more than R&B background noise, and when it does manage to achieve a solid piece, SiR rarely puts the entire puzzle together and far too many tracks on this album are only half of a good song. While it's gonna be hard for me to ignore an artist signed to Top Dawg going forward SiR has taken a step back since his last record, and if he takes another one next time it may be all the patience I have. 4.5/10
For more Top Dawg Entertainment check out my review of Schoolboy Q's Crash Talk here
