I'm super mixed on this one. I don't remember what singles brought her to my attention last year but I quickly learned she was on everyone's radar as one of the brighter up-and-coming stars in R&B -- and that I was late to the party, as she'd released a few acclaimed EPs earlier. I enjoyed what I heard and was ready to dig into this, her full-length debut.

The album itself is a nice mix of styles, current sounds mixed with a touch of a 90s/early 00s vibe (even if I couldn't pin down what makes me say that, lol). There's some afrobeats ("Bubbles") and dancehall-ish ("Softly") stuff, a few cuts that are more hip hop-inflected ("One", "Competition"), a number of ballads or more reflective pieces ("Healing Hurts", the especially striking "Cosmic"), and just some really great production/arrangements overall. And about halfway through, starting with "On and On," it seems to consciously take a left turn more self-reflective lyrics and a broader soundscape, with a loose otherworldly/outer space theme and some genuinely unexpected musical moments that feel like something out of a Janelle Monae album.

"On & On" is itself a good example: it starts out as a mid-paced pop track built around a strong emphasis on each beat that sounds familiar at first - think the main riff of "Benny & the Jets" - but slowly incorporates unexpected strings, clever vocal layers, and takes an even more unexpected psychedelic turn toward the end as the beat drops out and the vocals just float. A few tracks later, album standout "Cosmic" merges a same sense of the unexpected with a moving vocal melody and harmonies that seem to propel the track forward on their own. Album closer "Event Horizon" is probably the boldest choice in this sense, with densely layered vocal harmonies shifting atop a shimmering drum-less backdrop.

Yet for all its high points, the album has a confusing pace and a bit of an identity crisis. Amber Mark's vocals rarely come across as especially distinct or notable on their own, and her actual vocal performances often feel flat, almost lacking in personality or perspective. She breaks out on tracks like "Cosmic": there, her vocals seem at their most raw and fully invested. And as thankful as I am for the genre-hopping and relatively trap-less production, it comes across as more scattered than thoughtful -- like an accident more than a decision. Similarly, there's a very loose theme here that is never truly embraced.

There are some really confusing choices that don't help. If "Healing Hurts" had been a duet w/someone like Lucky Daye, dropped the overly loud hihats/trappish elements and instead leaned into its gospel-ish quality, that shit would be a well-justified hit, easy; instead it feels like a draft of an idea that never pays off. "FOMO" is a great dance track that nearly implodes on an awful refrain in the chorus ("no mo fomo"); similarly, "Most Men" wastes a really, really smart intro and song premise on super clumsy lyrics that just seem to get worse as the song goes on ("most men are garbage" is part of the chorus which, regardless of how you feel about its sentiment, just feels about as lazy as one can get). And a number of tracks just never really grabbed my interest.

In the end, for me, it's a solid album but one that feels like it wants to be more - maybe could be more - but never really delivers.

Favorite tracks:
Cosmic - https://youtu.be/Vt04M8K4R1c
One - https://youtu.be/cBFSMLAcYO0
On & On - https://youtu.be/YlsBGApYb7E

Also, just watched her Tiny Desk Concert -- worth a watch!
https://youtu.be/1D-QXrC3U0I


-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~