The things that caught me immediately were Max's voice and the drums. Both are warmer and more human-sounding than any Maxwell album before it.

The songwriting is beautiful and smart. LBTO is a love song to a lady and to Mother Earth. I heard Max say in an interview (BC?) that most of his songs are romance-based on the surface, but there are layers of meaning. That blew my mind! All this time Max has been slipping in subliminal shit disguised as love songs??? Been trying to decode 1990x since it dropped.

It's simultaneously his tightest and most complete. Bsn was tight but too short. I wanted MORE. UHS and Embrya were complete, but meandered (which is perfect for the right mood). And Now was all over the place. I'm perfectly satisfied with bSn and I was hit with nothing by solid complete songs.

Before this, I held Max to an Embrya standard. But I'm not in my 20s anymore. I don't need another experimental, Massive Attack-influenced underwater Sade album. Ain't no album ever gonna sound like Embrya again, and it shouldn't. At this moment, I need a solid, headphone album that I can also play with my wife in the car on a long road trip. Max sounds right at home with a live band. He's a funny, playful, smart dude (his Twitter, Snap, and Insta are awesome) and this album reflects his personality perfectly.