Album Review: Chilombo | Jhene Aiko
- lifeisbella
- Apr 1, 2020
- 3 min read
This is Album #14/20 that I listened to for my 2020 challenge. I listened to this album 8 times for my review.
Here are some quick stats about Chilombo by Jhene Aiko:
I really liked this album. I do have some problems with it, but overall I thought it was really catchy and I like the vibe.
Lotus (Intro)**
Triggered (Freestyle)*
None of Your Concern (feat. Big Sean)
Speak
B.S. (feat. H.E.R.)
P*$$Y Fairy (OTW)
Happiness Over Everything (H.O.E.) (feat. Future and Miguel)
One Way St. (feat. Ab-Soul)
Define Me (Interlude)
Surrender (feat. Dr. Chill)
Tryna Smoke*
Born Tired
Love
10k Hours (feat. Nas)*
Summer 2020 (Interlude)
Mourning Doves
Pray For You
Lightning & Thunder (feat. John Legend)**
Magic Hour
Party for Me (feat. Ty Dolla Sign)
(bold- dislike, *- like)
Even the few songs that I dislike, I didn't hate. They just slightly annoy me. I really don't like Big Sean's verse on "None of Your Concern." There were quite a few songs that I really do like though. My favorites were "Lotus" and "Lightning & Thunder" by far. I didn't know what to expect with this album, so when the album started out with "Lotus," it kind of gave the wrong impression of what was to come. I wish that more of the songs were jazzy like "Lotus" is.
My biggest problem with this album are the lyrics. There is a lot of explicit vulgarity that I'm not a fan of. It feels very cheap and gross. It feels like the songwriters didn't have enough creativity, that they had to resort to this low level. Yes, a lot of male artists do this, but I don't like it when they do it either. I called out Justin Bieber for doing this, I'm going to call Jhene out for it too. You can talk about sex in a way that isn't gross, that isn't stooping down to this level. It's disappointing for me because I think the music has a lot of potential, but when the lyrics are so explicit it feels lazy and basic. It also makes the song very one note and surface level. For the most part, only a few songs on the album have this problem. Other songs may not have a problem with explicit lyrics, but in some cases the lyrics seem lazy and repetitive, in my opinion. But for me, lyrics are typically a pretty minor issue. I mostly get attached to the music, the beat and the vibes. If the music is good enough, I can usually overlook the lyrics and enjoy.
I like that there is a lot of variety between songs on this album. There a couple of jazzy songs, there's some slow ballads. Each of the songs are very distinguishable between each other.
Jhene is listed as a writer on all of the songs. Most of the songs are at least with one other person. The list of writers isn't too massive, so I do believe that she's had a big influence on the writing of these songs.
I want to introduce another element to my reviews. I will be discussing whether I would recommend listening to the album, and whether I would recommend buying the album. Just because I think these two questions give a different context to my rating. Even though I may give a rating that's considered low, I may still recommend other people to listen to it because while the album may not be for me, I may think that it's worth a listen and/or that I think it's interesting or creative but just not for me. And if I think it's worth buying, I think it also gives more context to how much I like it and/or whether I think it's important to support the artist.
So for this album:
Listen or not listen: Listen. I definitely think this is worth spending some time listening.
Buy or not buy: Not buy. I didn't love it so much that I feel the need to own it. But mostly, I feel like this is a very mainstream artist that will do well enough with just my streams. I would feel more inclined to buy if it's an indie artist that needs encouragement, momentum and buzz, or if it was a mainstream artist's work that I ABSOLUTELY loved.
I was pretty happy with this album, except for a few relatively minor issues. I would recommend people to listen to it. I will probably listen to her future work as well. I'd probably give this album a 6.5/10. Have you listened to the album? Be sure to let me know your opinion in the comments.
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