R&B Boys with 4batz, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Moses Sumney, Khalid, & Serpentwithfeet
I love R&B and I've already covered a few releases in the genre this year. But I wanted to catch up with some of the records that fell through the cracks, especially those from artists I've enjoyed in the past.
Sincere - Khalid
u made me a st4r - 4batz
Earlier this year a TikTok about videos that don't match the energy of the song they're for launched R&B singer 4batz to virality. While that was built around the smash hit date @ 8, which I admittedly love, it resulted in some major cosigns for the singer from artists like Drake and Kanye West. He capitalized on the rise to fame with this short project and going into it I was mostly just curious if he would be able to break the mold of his single hit so far. date @ 8 is great with its earworm refrains and pitched-up vocals, but that wasn't going to work for a full 8 songs broken up by a few sparse interludes.
The third single from the album actually served up a potentially interesting scenario. on god? is a decent track that leans even further into the sensuality of R&B and manages to serve up some pretty decent refrains along the way. Unfortunately, the other times the record tries to handle sensuality it goes very poorly. fckin u makes the mind-boggling mistake of censoring the word "fucking" on the chorus which completely evaporates any hint of sexiness from the track. That is, of course, any sexiness that's still left over after 4batz sings "I get you wetter than windshields." The lyrics on mad man similarly feel like they were written by a 13-year-old who heard about sex on the bus.
There are a few highlights among the deep cuts. all we do is argue, argue is similarly too short like many of the songs here but it's one of the only tracks that foregoes the snail's pace and 4batz actually handles it quite well. I also find myself enjoying there goes another vase even though it fits snuggly into the album's already-established formula. That's the thing with u made me, it has potential but that's really all it serves up. For the most part, the record proves that 4batz can correctly identify what made date @ 8 work, but can't consistently replicate it. While there are flashes of new weapons in his arsenal, it's gonna take a lot more convincing for me to believe that 4batz has staying power as an artist. 5/10
PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 - PARTYNEXTDOOR
OVO singer PARTYNEXTDOOR is an artist I've enjoyed for a long time. While I think his second album PND2 contains most of his best material, each new PND record has delivered on at least a few highlights even if they could almost all use some scaling back. His last album dropped all the way back in 2020 and while I liked it, the full hour-long runtime created plenty of unnecessary R&B slop along the way. That's why I was hoping for the 4th album in his self-titled series to be an improvement, even though I wasn't crazy about the singles as a bunch. Lose My Mind is a rough detailing of a three-way with a horribly misplaced interpolation of DMX's Party Up. I similarly wasn't crazy about the other single that dropped this year Real Woman.
In contrast, Her Old Friends comes later on the record and it's actually one of the only singles that's grown on me since I first heard it. I like the opening track Control for a few reasons. Firstly, it's a good song whose patient instrumental perfectly matches the upfront sensuality of the track. But it also sets up plenty of thematic context for the record, even if Lose My Mind ruins it immediately. I also quite like Cheers which works both on its own and in conjunction with the two tracks that follow it. The best deep cut on the record is For Certain which achieves a level of authenticity that isn't present on some of the record's raunchier songs. It does to not only with a far more mature lyrical palette but also a shift on the instrumental front with punchier drums and washed-out watery synths like it's a Kelela song.
I think P4 is an improvement over its predecessor in terms of slimming down the tracklist to just the best points. I was surprised by just how many of the deep cuts clicked with me and despite a few big whiffs on the singles I think the album is pretty satisfying. While it lacks the incredible high-end moments of PND2, I still think this is a solid album that clicked with me more than I anticipated initially. 6.5/10
Sophcore EP - Moses Sumney
Because Moses Sumney is a talented actor and model in addition to his remarkable abilities as a musician, he disappeared from releasing much new music for quite a while. His last album was 2020's grae which had some extraordinary highlights, though my favorite thing he's ever released is still the Black In Deep Red, 2014 EP he dropped back in 2018. So seeing him return to the EP format was incredibly exciting. Part of that comes from the two singles he released to tease towards the EP, both of which I liked quite a bit. Vintage came first and what a dazzling moment it is. The song features Moses continuing to delight by exploring his higher register with a steady drum beat and illustrious synth arrangement to great results. I was similarly entranced by the evocative and sensual Gold Coast which features boatloads of Moses' incomparable charm weaved in through breathy vocals and a stuttering beat.
I'm Better serves as the intro track to the album and as a result it's the longest cut here. I wouldn't say it carries the same kind of swagger I'm used to hearing from Moses, which is a shame because the entire song is basically about him having a glow-up. It feels more like a mission statement for the EP than a fully realized song of its own. While the last two tracks may not have the same charm as the singles I do view them pretty positively. Love's Refrain delivers these delightful background vocals while Hey Girl is a surprisingly contemplative sensual outing. Thought I'm not head over heels for this entire EP, I do like it. Moses proves that he's still one of the most talented vocalists in all of R&B and that his creative drive will still take him in interesting directions, even if he isn't always hitting home runs. 7/10
I won't waste your time with this one, Sincere is the kind of flat-out identity theft that should go down in music history. As badly as Greta Van Fleet rips off Led Zeppelin, Sincere steals every single sonic element from Troye Sivan. The nocturnal R&B and pop instrumentals, breathy vocal affectations, and short circular refrains are so much of Troye's playbook that I can't believe nobody else that I've seen has pointed it out. It's almost embarrassing how many of these songs feel like not just Troye Sivan leftovers, but like they're literally performed by Sivan himself. Khalid was never overflowing with personal identity, but on this record for the first time he's just flat out borrowing from someone else entirely.
Let me back up. I like Khalid and some of his early hit singles, particularly Location. While I thought his debut album was a little underbaked I was looking forward to him reaching his full potential. As it turns out with the albums, EPs, and mixtapes that have followed he's never come close to even matching the quality of his already just okay debut. The album makes absolutely no attempt to hide this distinction either. Openeing track Adore U was released as a single and it sounds like an evil version of Troye's Got Me Started. Then the record immediately turns around with a more upbeat track whose beat and backing vocals could be ripped straight out of a song like Take Yourself Home. Further blatant examples include It's All Good, Broken, and Long Way Home.
Like many copycat albums, the quality of the record isn't completely bankrupt. I still have a bit of a soft spot for the lead single Please Don't Fall In Love With Me. I can also get behind the title track which serves up some of the better singing Khalid delivers on the album in its most dramatic moments. This is far from the worst album I've ever heard and from a pure quality standpoint it's probably even a bit more listenable than Khalid's last album. But the creative bankruptcy runs to deep that even the record's high points are tainted by a relentless dedication to ripping off Troye Sivan at every turn. For an album called Sincere, the results are anything but. 2/10
GRIP - serpentwithfeet
While I wasn't totally in love with serpentwithfeet's last album DEACON in 2021, the record did grow on me after I initially reviewed it mainly due to a few high points like Sailor's Superstition. For that reason and the fact that they're one of the most interesting and creative artists working in the R&B genre, I wanted to cover this record even though it's been quite a while since it originally dropped earlier this year. Part of that creativity is in the collaborators the record deploys. Opener and lead single Damn Gloves recruits Ty Dolla $ign in the thick of his Vultures era alongside new age artist Yanga Yaya and producer Nosaj Thing to admittedly quite strange results. Later on the record Mick Jenkins and Orion Son both make contributions, though how good their contributions are and how well they're deployed is certainly up for debate.
But if you take the singles and some of the guest cuts out of the mix, what the core of the album serves up is still pretty appetizing. Speaking of appetite, Spades is a big highlight with a thumping beat and swaying instrumental that walks a great line between catchy and sensual. Hummin leans all the way into that intimacy which delivers rumbling bass and near-whispered vocals that I find pretty irresistible. The record also ends off on a pretty nice one-two-punch of the lovelorn Lucky Me and the bouncy 1 to 10. GRIP is an album absolutely made by its deep cuts. Similar to PARTYNEXTDOOR's album I entered skeptically based on what I had already heard snd was pleasantly surprised by some of what made it into the mix. 6/10
