Jhene Aiko has always had a number of things going for her. She has a lovely voice. Listening to her is always soothing. Also, the sheer number of big name collaborations that she has had ensures that she’s never too far from sight. With her earlier work though, I’ve always felt that her music has too little variance in it. It always felt a little too easy to move from calmed to bored. The stellar production on this album however keeps anything like that from happening.
Her voice still makes the album, but it plays with the music instead of using it as mere backing. On “To Love & Die” for instance, the beat shifts continuously under her vocals and sets up her vocal shifts perfectly. The album is still all slow jams about relationships, her core sound has not changed, it’s just better realized than ever before.
This album doesn’t try to be clever, but it manages very well at being comforting.
Top Five Records 