It seems like October 28th was just the day for everyone to release music.
Especially the R&B Girls.
So i wanted to just come on and casually review some of the new songs that dropped last week,
as well as their music videos and give my thoughts.
Because mostly, I was pretty impressed.
I’m gonna be talking about sza and rihanna obviously, but also wanna share thought on
chloe, lauren jauregui, and coco jones new releases also.
I don’t know if this was made public, and I just missed it, but I had no idea shirt
was gonna be a re-release, or like the full version of a song we’d already heard.
Like as soon as it started playing I was like, wait, I’ve definitely heard this before
on tiktok.
I felt like I was going crazy bc I’d definitely heard it before.
And yeah, SZA released shirt on instagram back in like late 2020/ early 2021.
I dont think that was the official name of the song at first, but rather what the fans
ended up calling it and sza went with it.
Shirt song made its way onto tiktok, where it also became a dance trend.
SZA also teased it at the end of her Good Days Video, which came out back in March 2021.
I liked shirt when it came out, even though i had no idea what it was called, so I'm not
really mad at it.
Back when sza performed shirt in july of 2021, she said doja cat would feature on the official
version, but i guess that fell through.
My favorite part of the release is the music video.
I love when music videos are like little short films with a concept and we get to see the
artists act.
I love the kind of 70s blaxploitation aesthetic.
I also love Lakeith Stanfield is in the video.
like he’s good in everything.
And he has a villain face.
I couldn't tell at first if SZA and Lakeith were like hitmen, or they were just robbing
people and doing like a bonnie and clyde thing.
I didnt think I was gonna see sza die and ascend in a video, so that had me shook.
I thought lakeith killed her at first, and she was lowkey haunting him, but then she
came back to give him a lapdance then left him to get killed.
I saw people speculating that her second album might be out in december because of the december
sticker on the license plate.
SZA herself said the album might be out any day now, so i dont know if that means a fall
or winter release.
In the end credits, she teased her next song blind, which I’m excited to hear the rest
of.
I also caught the sos spelling out on her wrist as the video went.
I wonder if that is the name of her sophomore album.
I feel like it would fit, with control, sos.
Darkchild produced shirt, which I didn’t know before.
I never thought about a sza darkchild combo but it makes sense.
Reading the lyrics helped me understand the music video more.
It’s about a toxic and addictive relationship, which definitely explains sza and lakeith’s
dynamic in the video, even if it’s been dramatized.
I like shirt.
My only critique is that it does sound more dated, and that’s because it sounds similar
to the music she was making at the time she initially released it.
It fits perfect sonically with other singles she made at the time like hit different and
good days.
Like, shirt just sounds 2 years old, which to be fair, it is.
I do like that szas songs have a specific vibe and atmosphere to them.
but i also like when an artist has a sound, but the yprogress in that sound throughout
their careers.
I feel like from what we’ve heard of blind, it’ll achieve this.
Like blind sounds like a jaded sza who’s seen some shit, and she’s coming with a
different vibe and perspective.
And I hope we see that more on the album.
Overall, I think shirt is a typical SZA song.
My mind wasn’t blown, but I didn’t hate it either.
If it came on I wouldn’t skip it.
I’d give it a solid 7/10.
It did what it needed to do, it gave us a fun video, teased her next single, and drummed
up excitement for her sophomore album.
So, 7/10.
Rihanna Life Me Up: Rihanna’s was my least favorite out of all
the new releases.
But honestly, I don’t think any of my reasons for disliking it have to do with Rihanna.
Her voice sounds just fine, it’s not a bad song, it’s just… boring.
And I get it’s not meant to be an upbeat song because it’s dedicated to Chadwick
Boseman’s memory.
But, it’s still boring.
One thing about me, it’s just hard for me to enjoy a ballad in general, no matter who
the artist is, I’m just not a ballad girl.
I caught myself skipping through the song the first time I heard it to see if it ever
picked up.
I like the guitar or whatever instrument is playing throughout the song, though.
The lyrics are nice as well.
Lift Me Up was co-written by Tems, who is a Nigerian singer-songwriter.
ABout writing the song, she said, “I wanted to write something that portrays a warm embrace
from all the people that I've lost in my life.
I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I could sing to them now and express how
much I miss them."
I believe the song achieves that.
The lyrics do communicate the feeling of both loving and missing someone who’s no longer
around.
It’s a decent song, it’s just not for me.
I think Rihanna’s voice sounds beautiful though.
I’ve said this in another video, but I think a special thing about Rihanna’s voice is
that you can always feel whatever she’s singing, whether that’s love, and pain,
or sadness, or frustration.
The majority of the video has clips from Black Panther, but in the clips where Rihanna’s
shown, she looks great.
She stays on a beach though.
I’m also well aware this is a song for a movie soundtrack, so if Rihanna has more music
to release soon, it’ll probably sound different from this.
All in all, I appreciate Lift Me Up, but it’s not for me.
It just doesn’t move me really.
And I feel like sometimes that just happens.
Over the years, Rihanna has lent her voice to several soundtracks, and I think one where
I especially love her work she contributed was for Home.
I feel like some of the music on the soundtrack got overlooked because it was a kids movie,
but there are great songs on here.
Out of the 3 Rihanna did, Dancing In the Dark is My Favorite.
The song fits the theme of the movie, but it’s not so on the nose that it feels like
a soundtrack song.
Even though it’s more upbeat, I still do feel a little nostalgia and sadness, even
though it’s not a sad song.
Towards the Sun is slower, but still has more umph to it than I felt with Lift Me Up.
I reread the lyrics for toward the sun, which rihanna actually helped write, and I feel
like this song could have fit for black panther 2.
Not that that was ever a conversation, but the lyrics are more compelling, and full of
figurative language and symbolism that creates the emotion that I didn’t feel when listening
to lift me up.
In addition, the fact that the music in towards the sun builds and crescendos generates emotion
too when listening to the song.
I think that’s my biggest problem with Lift Me Up.
i can appreciate the song for what it is and what it means, but it doesn’t move me at
all.
I would give it maybe a 6/10.
For The Night:
I went into for the night expecting to like it, but wouldn’t have been surprised if
I didn’t.
I liked treat me and have mercy, but i found surprise to be lackluster.
But I really did like for the night.
I didn’t listen to any teasers because I wanted to hear it for the first time in its
entirety.
I love the 2000s R&B vibes.
Like i know they didn’t invent them, and they’re riding the trend too, but when the
song first started i got FLO vibes.
I feel like this is the sort of solo music I was expecting from Chloe initially, and
I think this is what she tried with Surprise but it just didn’t land.
The song doesn’t do too much but it’s still not boring.
I can also get that Chloe is writing and singing about something that actually means something
to her.
Chloe confirmed the song was about gunna in a tweet, saying, “I might regret saying
this, but hey, maybe it’ll help fu**ing streams.
I don’t even think he knows this!
I wrote ‘For The Night’ about Gunna.”
And their relationship, whatever extent it was at, seems to be over since Chloe said
she’s single.
I can see how “love me for the night” would be a perfect theme of a song for two
young people trying to navigate a relationship or situationship whilst being in the industry.
Apparently, Gunna was kind of flip floppy and inconsistent when he and chloe were seeing
each other, and the lyrics support that.
It seemed like whatever Chloe wanted from him, she wasn’t getting.
I wonder if anyone’s played gunna this song in jail.
I love the concept of the music video.
It’s still clearly a music video, but it also gives a day in the life/ vlog sort of
feeling rather than something that’s 100% Staged and acted out.
Chloe filmed this backstage while at iheartradio fest and I feel like it only adds to the idea
that she’s busy and her career does to some degree impact her relationships.
I hate to say it, but the Latto feature was unnecessary.
I don’t think it’s a bad rap and Latto got her bag regardless, but I don’t think
it adds anything to the song.
I do think as far as the video goes though, it was cool to see Chloe perform the song
on stage, but then Latto’s feature was backstage.
Chloe debuted for the night at iheart radio fest back in september, but didn’t announce
the latto feature until last week.
So i think it’s really cool that they filmed it in a way that kept it secret.
I like this song.
Like I said, I feel like this is what I was waiting for from Chloe, as far as her R&b
songs go.
I would give the song an 8 out of 10 for just Chloe’s part, but a 7.5/ 10 with the latto
feature because I feel like it wasn’t needed.
I of course expected this release to make less noise than rihanna and sza’s but the
ironic thing is that it was my favorite out of the three.
Always Love: I feel the same way about always love that
I do with Lift Me Up, with the exception of appreciating the lyrics more.
And like I’ve said before, I just love Lauren’s voice.
It’s so raspy and beautiful, and you can tell she feels every word she sings.
The video is simple, but it’s beautiful.
It communicates that feeling of emptiness after you’ve lost someone, but the memories
are still there.
I like the choice of only showing the ex’s face like once, and instead showing the rest
of his body and hands more.
It helps create the disembodied, disconnected feeling of not being with someone anymore,
but still remembering them and grieving the relationship.
Lauren used always love to reflect on her breakup with Ty Dolla Sign, which happened
back in 2019.
Lauren said, “I wrote the song back in 2019, so, it was inspired by the high profile breakup
that you allude to.
At the time, I was processing and grieving something that was really special to me.
I wrote the song with Trey Campbell, and he was so beautifully able to receive my vulnerability.
Between the two of us, we were able to convey what I was feeling, which was this kind of
nostalgic love, where I knew that I had to move forward, but I still had a lot of love
in my heart.
I wrote the song from that perspective, which is why it’s called “Always Love.”
The version of the song we’re hearing is actually the demo, and Lauren said she would
write a line, and then go record it after.
So, the feelings we’re hearing are raw and real and fresh, and I think that translates
well.
Despite the song having been written 3 years ago, Lauren said she still feels the same
way, and even feels that way about other relationships she’s had since.
I’m not entirely sure why she didn’t include Always Love on her EP Prelude.
I don’t think it would have fit, so maybe that’s the reason.
Or maybe, she just didn’t feel like sharing it at the time.
I would give always love a 6/10.
I don’t hate it, but Lauren has several other songs that I like more.
CoCo Jones: I’m so ready for coco jones to become an
r&b girly.
I didn’t even know she was coming out with music until I saw people talking about it.
And let me say, what a pleasant surprise.
I haven’t really heard her sing outside of like, Let It Shine, so I hadn’t heard
her adult voice.
I had no idea how mature it was, and that lower register does everything for me.
The video for ICU kind of reminds me of the little montage in Dreamgirls when Deena’s
career is taking off but she’s depressed bc jamie foxx’s character is treating her
like shit.
I love Simple, which she just dropped with Babyface.
Getting a Babyface feature is legendary, and coco 100% holds her own on it.
It reminds be of like the r&b my mom used to play when I was a kid.
Like, this gives me faith evans and keyshia cole type r&b.
We’re not getting too many instruments and pretenses in the music, we’re just getting
some vocals and hurt feelings.
I don’t know anything about coco’s upbringing, but she sings like someone who was raised
in a church, and that helps her voice give me those 90s r&b vibes too.
Aside from the music and vocals, I also feel like the lyrics contribute to that.
They’re straightforward, communicate the emotions directly.
They also don’t use any slang or language that will eventually become dated.
I think that always helps songs have that timeless, classic, feel to them.
Like I said earlier, Coco’s voice is really mature and it works well with babyface’s.
I don’t even want her to touch pop.
If she’s going to keep releasing music like this, I want her to stay firmly in R&B.
I’m going to rate these songs together and give them an 8 out of 10.
Maybe a 9.
But I was pleasantly surprised, and I want more from coco for sure.
I just wanted to jump in and give you guys my thoughts on some of the new releases that
came out in the past couple days.
I have to say, I really am excited for R&b and where it’s at right now.
I haven’t been much of a fan the past couple years, as far as female r&b artists went,
but I feel that changing.
So I will definitely be keeping my eye out for ore releases form these girls in the future,
and hopefully some albums.