Love Sick / Don Toliver / February 24, 2023
- Joshua Yoo
- Mar 7, 2023
- 2 min read
The common thread connecting all of Don Toliver’s projects has been the continued evolution of his moodier, nocturnal brand of rap, and ‘Love Sick’ puts its best foot forward in embracing this melodic style to the fullest. Almost as much an R&B album as is a hip-hop album, the commitment to its theme of love is audible and commendable, even if the execution still feels like great potential short of coming to fruition.
Apparent from the very start, there’s a hazy atmosphere that envelops the entire sound of the record, clouding the instrumentals and creating a slow burning vibe for the entirety of its runtime. At times this vibe is lush and beautiful, such as the blurry acoustic instrumentation on “Leather Coat” or eerie melodies laced into the production on “Let Her Go”. His verses here are focused, grooves well-established, and there’s still plenty of charisma that makes his sound so identifiably alluring.
This isn’t the case for every track, or even most, as the inconsistency of sharp writing is becoming an unfortunately consistent trend within each successive album. The aimless, off-kilter riffing on the track “Cinderella” well encapsulates the larger lack of structure in a number of different verses or hooks, where the songs begin to fade beneath the overall atmosphere of the album in an unmemorable way.
It’s maybe slightly more disappointing than previously because of how textured and interesting the production can be at moments across the album. The commitment sonically and thematically to its themes of love and love-sickness is evident, but the quality of performances isn’t always, making for an overall lukewarm experience.
Highlight(s): Leather Coat, Honeymoon, Company Pt. 3, LoveSickness, Let Her Go
Lowlight(s): Private Landing, Leave The Club, Cinderella, 4 Me, Go Down
Comments