2023 MUSIC REVIEWS: Don Toliver 'LOVE SICK'

 

DON TOLIVER – ‘LOVE SICK’
Release Date: 02/24/23
(CACTUS JACK/ATLANTIC RECORDS)

Houston-born singer/rapper Don Toliver returns with his 3^rd studio album in 4 years.  Quickly you notice it’s very down-tempo & more seductively textured than previous Toliver projects, evident on the enjoyable opener “LoveSickness” seeing Don trading cockiness for the possibility of catching feelings.  Following that, we quickly return to plenty of his same vibey, spacey, trappy-R&B elements for his core fans.  I was impressed by the new vocal skills Don showed off on the recent Metro Boomin’ album ‘Heroes & Villains’ & hoping it may carry over to here, but not quite.  It’s feature-heavy, sometimes to fault, as only half the guests worked for me (WizKid, Lil Durk, Brent Faiyaz, Toro y Moi, & Future); opposed to those that didn’t fit (James Blake, Glorilla, Kali Uchis, TisaKorean, Justin Bieber, & Charlie Wilson).  Production’s laid-back and tries balancing trust issues, relationship betrayal, (or) moving on to someone new.  There is a handful of head-scratching samples not executed well though, like SOS Band's "Do It Tonight" (on "Do It Right") & Beenie Man's "Girls Dem Sugar" (on "4 Me") both being horrible.  One sample that did work nicely was the Brent Faiyaz-assisted "Bus Stop" flipping BlackStreet's "I Can't Get You Out of My Mind" into a welcomed change of pace of dancey, Jersey-house energy.  Oddly my favorite song on the album was the solo cut “Company Pt. 3”.  Other notably good songs were the calming, Wizkid-assisted "Slow Motion", as well as "Cinderella" & “Time Heals All”. 

Unfortunately, focus is too heavy on a low-end, low-fi, melancholy ambience; an overuse of distortion; & chirpy, springy repetitive synth-beats with more pitchy Young Thug-esque too-reverbed vocals than I’d prefer.  The Hit-Boy-produced, electric-guitar driven “Go Down” for example, has the makings of a good R&B bop about things sexually going down in a car backseat, yet is quickly derailed by Don’s terrible vibratos, his laughable harmonized bridges, poorly-mixed peaking drums, & strange uncatchy transitions.  I’m admittedly a HUGE Charlie Wilson fan, so I was sadly disappointed how stall & uninteresting "If I Had" is.  Bieber’s likely the worst collabo on “Private Landing” where Don's annoyingly monotone & Justin gives such a not-into-this, echo-manipulated lazy performance, both disrupting from a halfway decent Future verse.  Presently, the track I dislike most is “Honeymoon” for being a boring, clumsy, bassy mess of poorly-mixed chord progressions & silly jibberish.  His uninspired direction just keeps me waiting for more versatility & dimension.  Not a bad album yet not enough contrast in 16 songs of pretty much the same generic, dreary, often-off-key vibe.  I score it 3 STARS (out of 6) as the more seductive moods I did appreciate.  With me scoring his previous (2) albums 2.5 Stars (out of 6) each, it's a small step up, but still very little growth or lyrical improvement in his career yet.