The album I chose to review this week is titled Sonder Son, written and produced by Brent Faiyaz. This piece was published October 13th in 2017, and it includes 12 songs with an overall length of 42 minutes. Brent Faiyaz creates pop R&B music, which is the genre of this album and personally one of my favorites. Although this album was a hit that many people loved and enjoyed, it’s not his most popular album and arguably not his best. This may be because this is his first album he created and produced on his own, but he had been making music for years before 2017.
Christopher Brent Wood, known as Brent Faiyaz was born on September 19th, 1995, in Columbia, Maryland, which is where he moved from to Los Angeles. He gets his inspiration from some other popular artists that I also enjoy, including Radiohead, Aaliyah, Jeff Buckley, and more that he would listen to especially during the process of creating this amazing music piece. Brent released his first EP in March 2013 titled Sunset Ave, and the second EP of that same year was Black Child. He released his first single the following year, which was Allure. Although Brent Faiyaz did produce this album, the other producers include Atu, Ben Free, D-Pat, James Harte, Joey Lopez, Los Hendrix, Nascent, Pablo Dylan, Paperboy Fabe, Yves “Bus” Bazelais Jr.
When Brent Faiyaz was creating this album, it was based off of his experience from moving from his hometown to Los Angeles California and how he didn’t feel fully accepted at first. It also focuses on some of his upbringing and how he felt growing up, not just in school but in the world with the people in his life, especially his love life. Although he mentioned his school life and his view on education in the album, this was mainly for the first two songs. The first song was “Home”, and I liked how he chose this song to introduce the album because it was short yet impactful, although I do wish it was longer. I would say my favorite song on the album is “Talk 2 U”, which is actually how I found this album originally because this was the only song from the album I knew, despite really liking it and the artist himself. Even though most of the songs sound pretty similar, they all have their differences and it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable, and plus this is bound to happen considering it’s the same voice on every song. An example of a way he switched it up between each song is “So Far Gone/Fast Life Bluez” because he sung most of the parts in a different type of voice and strain, which I really enjoyed.
In conclusion, I am really glad I decided to review Sonder Son, and I would rate it a 4.5/5. R&B is one of my favorite genres, so it was hard to not enjoy it when Brent Faiyaz is very talented and skilled in making that type of music. I would listen to pretty much all of these songs on a regular basis and really enjoy them, and I actually plan on exploring more of Brent’s music. I like the message that Brent Fayiaz is trying to portray and how he isn’t afraid to speak up on issues of the world, which he touched on in “First World Problemz/Nobody Carez”
The best way to describe the feeling of this album is just a really relaxing and calming feeling, and how everything syncs up together really nicely like the instruments and vocals and everything else.
