Chop Up the Beat album discussions with Bobby Manning and Jamel Smith is now a regular segment on The Bobcast.
TDE does it again giving SZA a great platform for her debut studio album. It’s a fun, quick, conceptual and unfiltered listen.
Mel Smith says SZA may not be correct in a technical way but it sticks out and gets an urgent point across in a way her past works didn’t. It also pushes a style that exploded with her influence on Rihanna’s ANTI and makes you want to go back and hear what she’s saying again.
Bobby notes SZA’s clear full level of creative control to brand a debut album around a particular concept that Frank Ocean tried to do with Channel Orange but clearly ran into too much label interference. It feels free, unhindered, and truly from within deep, real feelings. It also resonates within the audience it’s being pushed toward, 20-something year olds with little money or real love that look to find control in their life through any vice or solace they can even when it hurts them.
Doves in the Wind, standing as a fun and sonically exciting track that’s built on a heavy think-piece topic shows the strength of the album. It doesn’t sacrifice concept for sound, yet isn’t dreary or incapable of being enjoyed in an open environment.
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