Top Dawg Entertainment–home to hip-hop stalwarts Jay Rock and Schoolboy Q–has some post-Labor Day heat on its hands with SiR’s new album, Chasing Summer. Packed with collaborations, the singer/songwriter has a crafted silky-smooth R&B punctuation to the season’s dog days.
Opening track and lead single “Let Your Hair Down,” featuring SiR’s TDE label-mate and hip-hop megastar Kendrick Lamar, became an early summer hit. Lamar raps in a reserved but rapid-fire verse over languid guitar chords.
Chasing Summer Thoughts
More than a year removed from 2018’s November, Summer finds the Inglewood, CA-based artist pulling in the likes of Lil Wayne, Jill Scott, Smino, and others in addition to Lamar, for silky R&B sounds that pair nicely with late August/early September vibes.
The soothing, forlorn sounds continue on “John Redcorn” (the name is a reference to a King of the Hill character). SiR exclaims “…baby dive in deeper and deeper..She don’t believe me but I tell her that I need her. ” There are heavy overtones of love sickness and loss throughout Chasing Summer, a noted departure from November’s sunnier slant.
On “New Sky,” Kadjha Bonet’s soulful guitar chords and vocals are paired with the chorus “…New sky, new sky…Won’t you let the clouds go by…?” Slightly more uptempo but still firmly in the mode of introspective yearning, SiR tells listeners “…thought I was gone now, on the run now…Tryna find a happier me…But flyin’ away didn’t fix a thing.” SiR’s deeply personal lyrics–which he supplied to the likes of Stevie Wonder and Anita Baker in the past–shroud the album in a kind of melancholy.
Chasing Summer closes with a literal love letter to the city of Los Angeles on “LA.” Light, gliding guitar strums work together with a jazzy backbeat. The track is tailor-made for a ride up the California coast.
Chasing Summer will assuredly draw comparisons to SZA’s 2017 release, Ctrl. Top Dawg houses both artists, and the label has put increased emphasis on their R&B stable in recent years. But Summer’s atmospheric, moody sounds are distinct and stand on their own. Ultra-personal songwriting, polished studio production and a host of guests combine to bid Summer 2019 farewell in soulful, heart-wrenching fashion.
