Don Toliver albums are usually not what you’d name “textually wealthy.” For stretches, they’ll appear virtually ambient: all purple neon, Xannied-out synthesizers, a by no means ending montage of nightclubs and bedrooms and money registers. What stands proud is the timbre of the R&B-trap singer’s voice, which generally is a outstanding instrument, able to conveying immense pathos even (and maybe particularly) when he’s not saying a lot in any respect. Due to the richness of his voice, there’s all the time been a way, on earlier LPs, of one thing being held again. Since signing with Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack imprint in 2018, he’s launched two remarkably listenable LPs that reveal precisely nothing about their creator, however go down straightforward, like yet another drug after a handful of them. They’re seductive and forgettable.
The brand new Love Sick implies, through its title, some bigger conceptual bent which may maybe reveal extra in regards to the supply of Toliver’s damage quiver, or not less than give it one thing new to do. However it principally doesn’t. It’s one other Don Toliver album, really useful for those who like the opposite Don Toliver albums. The opener units the temperature, and it’s completely temperate, filled with springy entice drums, pointillist guitars, and an entire host of Dons Toliver, alternately spectral and keening, dissolving out and in of focus. Tracks like “Time Heals All” and even “Personal Touchdown,” which options verses from Future and Justin Bieber, comply with the template completely, with a low finish precision-tuned to sound good on something and a queasy atmosphere that goads more and more louche advert libs from its vocalists.
As with 2021’s Life Of A Don, the LP’s tempo is ready by the moments that emerge from this tender miasma. James Blake’s sepulchral falsetto, generally misplaced in his hip-hop collaborations, syncs completely with Toliver on “Let Her Go,” climaxing in a strobe-lit outro. Blake will get manufacturing credit on a number of different tracks, together with the paranoid “Go away The Membership,” which threatens to rattle thrillingly off the rails with Lil Durk and GloRilla’s visitor verses. A handful of tracks play with new tempos and tones: a collaboration with IRL girlfriend Kali Uchis nods to millennial pop-R&B, whereas a Kaytranada beat conjures up a extra playful circulation on “Honeymoon.” And particular point out should be paid to the delirious vocal samples of “Do It Proper,” which recommend, greater than something, the extra adventurous LP Toliver would possibly sometime make, directly pop-oriented and producer-driven.
Or not. Love Sick looks like an enormous swing from Toliver, accompanied by a brief movie on Amazon, a shiny listing of producers and visitors, and a usually convincing front-to-back efficiency from the singer. At this level, it’s price contemplating his superficiality extra of a characteristic than a bug. He’s developed a repute as a form of Weight loss plan Travis because of the artists’ shut affiliation, however there are worse issues to be than dependable. In a drug, anyway, that’s most likely what you need.
