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After a three year hiatus, Brent Faiyaz has blessed us with his newest album, “Icon”, which was released on Feb. 13. In between albums, Faiyaz continued to stay busy though, with numerous singles and features on albums by the likes of 21 Savage, A$AP Rocky and many others. Fans were beginning to wonder if and when a new album was going to appear, especially after “Icon” got delayed indefinitely after its originally planned release date in September. But now, there is no more waiting, just a little over thirty minutes of Faiyaz giving us exactly what he does best.
For those who are already fans of Faiyaz, then this album is about what you will expect. Beautiful, melodic vocals synced perfectly with beats that will either make you want to get up and dance, or sit down and reflect. Vocally, Faiyaz is really putting in overtime, as he experiments with unique sounding tracks that display a wide range of Faiyaz’s capability.
I noticed this especially with the track “four seasons,” which is definitely one of the slower tracks on the album, but it really gives Faiyaz a chance to sonically prove he deserves every second of fame. Slower paced tracks like this tend to make me nervous, but overall Faiyaz paced this album really well, with nearly every track besides “world is yours,” ever feeling overly long.
“Icon” feels like a back and forth relationship where one moment they are in love, but the next the world is falling apart. One moment it feels like he is slowly dancing with them, but also watching them slowly slip out of his arms, like on songs “wrong faces” and “strangers.” But in other songs, it sounds like he is dancing right along with them, enjoying the moment, even if he knows it won’t last forever, such as “butterflies” and “other side.”
No matter the vibe of the song though, you feel like you are dancing right alongside Brent Faiyaz, vibing through the pain and joy. A sense of tragedy follows a lot of this album, but it is also never afraid to show the beauty in love.
A lot of these slower, more alluring tracks give off a lot of Frank Ocean vibes, which in the Ocean deprived world we live in now, I will happily accept. Unlike Frank Ocean though, it seems Faiyaz needs to polish his pen game a little more thoroughly.
If you looked at each song individually, then you really wouldn’t have many negative things to say about Faiyaz’s lyrics, but when put all together it does get a little repetitive. While each song does focus on love or being in a relationship in somewhat different ways, it never feels fleshed out enough to really make each track stand lyrically on its own.
This is not to say at all Faiyaz failed here lyrically, like I said, you could listen to this whole thing and never really notice, that’s how vibey and catchy this whole album feels. But, there is still a little left to be desired by then.
Also it is important to note that the two bonus tracks on the deluxe edition, “full moon” and “1 for you,” I thought made perfect sense as extra tracks. While not standing out too much, they fit within the context of the album quite well.
Faiyaz’s “Icon” broke my expectations quite drastically, and that really is no understatement. Faiyaz could have easily made a full album of uninspired, boring love songs, but instead delivered a project that is equally fun and mesmerizing to experience. No matter how beautiful the instrumentals can get, they never overpower Faiyaz’s vocals, which remain consistently soothing over the entire album. While not perfect, Faiyaz has created a consistent album that reflects on heartbreak, while also displaying so much love.
Album Score: 7/10
Song Ranking:
- wrong faces. – 9/10
- other side. – 9/10
- four seasons. – 8/10
- butterflies. – 8/10
- full moon. (fall in tokyo) [bonus track] – 8/10
- have to. – 7/10
- strangers. – 7/10
- pure fantasy. – 7/10
- vanilla sky. – 7/10
- 1 for you. (spring in new york) [bonus track] – 6/10
- world is yours. – 6/10
- white noise. – (Intro)