Bryson Tiller’s new album is his first full-length album in four years, but in the interim, the R&B-meets-rap, pop, and soul singer has become a nearly ubiquitous force in the music industry. Whether it’s his vulnerability as an artist, his talent, social media skills, or some other glitch in The Matrix, Tiller always seems to be elevating R&B culture and becoming a leader within it, even as he’s taking time off between projects The same goes for time.
On his new self-titled project, he immediately started rocking out, creating a body of work that looked to take the R&B sound in a variety of different directions, relying on the power of his voice to keep the enterprise flowing. It often achieves satisfying results, with Tiller reinterpreting the genre for which he was already a superstar. Other times, he gets complacent and leaves too many footprints to serve as anything more than filler. Regardless, it’s clear that this time off has left him with an unquenchable desire to return to the top of pop music.
There were only two guests on the Bryson Tiller: Victoria Monet and Clara La San. While this added some pressure to Tiller’s vision, the reasoning behind this decision made perfect sense within the context of the album.
“I’m a little impatient sometimes when it comes to features,” he told Complex in March. “I’ll be in the studio and write a song that has an opening verse. I’ll probably want two different artists and I’m like, ‘I can rap too, I’m probably better than that guy, so I’ll do it myself . “But I really just wanted this album to be more about myself, so I didn’t want to bring too many people in.”
Surprisingly, both of these things are true. Tiller has shown his prowess as a rapper time and time again, and this album is the clearest distillation of his discography, what he’s all about. In many ways, he was a traditional R&B star, but in more important and subtle ways, he was restless in taking the classic crooner template in exciting and strange directions.
“Attention” is a passionate, futuristic jam that uses vibrato synths and layered vocals to add energy to Tiller’s voice. “So I’m ready to disappear / Let’s go, honey / ‘Cause the way you put it on / Makes me want to take it off,” he sings. It’s simple, but clever, especially when he unleashes his voice. Lyrically, it doesn’t usually get much deeper than that, but Bryson uses his vocal dexterity and versatility to give an otherwise surface-level track something more substantial.
On “Stay Gold,” he spits in a perfect rap verse: “What do you keep forwarding my calls for?/You know it’s not necessary/Whatever the occasion, I’ll do what it asks/Ain’t it Too proud to beg, what do you want me to crawl for?” It’s just desperate enough to be charming without being embarrassing. Tiller deserves credit for betting it all on, to say the least.
Oddly enough, in isolation, Tiller turned to safer options that didn’t really pay off. On “CALYPSO,” he imagined the all-caps title would add some excitement to the song, but it’s just plain soul-pop material. Tiller is at his best when the specificity of his lyrics leads to something bigger than the scene itself, but on “CALYPSO,” they don’t mean much.
He sings about flirting with an old flame who was about to leave the club in the morning because of work obligations, but decided to stay after their song came on. It’s a movie scene with no explanation, and Tiller treats the song like he’s so famous that even his lackluster singles would be successful. He’s right, but that doesn’t make the song worthwhile.
“Outside,” which currently has nearly 50 million streams on Spotify, inexplicably samples the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song)” without doing anything with the potentially expensive interpolation. “Yeah, that ass is so swollen, I wanna grab it,” he sings, but that doesn’t quite work. Tiller and his team seemed to think that sampling an old hit would bring success, and while it has made its way onto playlists, it’s one of the weaker moments on this self-titled effort.
Tiller didn’t really tap into the realm of innovation, so the album’s sales depended on his creative songwriting. Bryson Tiller is often inspired by this, as in “Undertow,” when the singer asks his partner what his dream is as he lies on his chest. The acoustic guitar is almost sweet, but the specificity of his intrigue brings a relatable romanticism to the song.
That’s what Bryson Tiller does so well in this titular piece. He makes his world so vast that every life-or-death romantic encounter feels like our own. Love may hurt, but when you find the one, there’s nothing better than that. These high points are the core of Bryson Tiller’s strength.
Release date: April 5, 2024
Record company: RCA
Listen to Bryson Tiller’s speech below:
