I have to say that, as long as R&B is concerned, Halle has flawlessly achieved an echelon that most can’t even glimpse, and she showed this to full effect on her debut album love?… or something like it. The 15-track project saw her work with varied artists, including her sister, who is also one-half of the iconic duo Chlöe x Halle, Chlöe. If you’ve been a fan for some time, you’d know that she and her sister were raised with R&B in their blood, and they began performing at a young age. So the songstress’s latest offering is no dumb luck; it is the result of years of refining and growth. Every song on this album feels powerfully intimate, and while we can’t expect anything less from our Little Mermaid on the vocal front, she actually still surprised us with her vocals.
This era started with the release of the Grammy-nominated single, “angel.” She followed the celebrated debut solo single with a music video that showcased her dedication to highlighting black culture, as she stunned in gold and praised her “black girl hair.” “Your wings can’t weigh you down / angel’s make a way somehow / and if we fall, we fall on clouds,” she sings, before going into a chorus that sees her raise the bar every time she sings the word “angel.”
Taylor Swift may have told us “How You Lost the Girl,” but Halle is here to reiterate on this with the second track on the album “overtime.” “Like a snake shedding her skin / She was way too innocent / She was way too easy to fool / No way that she wouldn’t trust you,” she sings. In the chorus, she plainly tells us, “This is how a good girl never came back / She was riding on your truth, but you never told that, no (Yeah).” She adds: “This is how a good girl never came back / She was watching how you did her and she never came back (No).” Her voice has this quality that draws you into the story, and she uses it to its full effect on this song.
Prior to the album release, she’d already released singles like “back and forth,” “braveface,” “in your hands,” and the aforementioned “angel.” Coming in as the eighth track on the album, “back and forth” is another song that drew my full admiration. The song opened Halle’s musical year when she released it on Feb. 14, and even though it’s not telling us an auspicious love story, you can’t help but admit that she hit the mark when she sings, “I deserve a love that doesn’t hurt.” Don’t we all? RAYE’s touch does not go unnoticed in tracks like “because i love you” and “braveface,” with her signature descriptive style peeking out between the lines.
Blending R&B and neo-soul, with powerfully captivating lyrics, Halle steals our hearts little by little as we climb down the tracks on this album. Fun fact: Halle principally wrote the lyrics to the songs on this album with producer D. Phelps, so when she calls it an “arc of my journey,” I totally understood.
“The songs capture the highs and lows of first love and the self-discovery that follows,” Halle says. “The album traces the arc of my journey—falling headfirst into the euphoria of connection, giving all of myself to someone else, and then when it’s all over, wrestling with the question: was that really love, or just something like it?”
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love?… or something like it proves that Halle has mastered her voice and her pen. Whether she’s got a handle on her emotions is for you to dive into the album and find out. The downside? Some songs are magical and others are simply not.
