Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Bazzi, iamcosmic/Atlantic Records 2019.
Bazzi calls this album a mixtape, I suppose because it’s comprised of a collection of apparently unrelated singles rather than a series of songs united by a theme or vision.
The album collects together a selection of songs that have in the most part already achieved considerable commercial success including I.F.L.Y., Focus (feat. 21 Savage) and the ARIA certified gold hit Paradise.
Paradise is proving to be one of Bazzi’s biggest hits thus far.
The track featured in the Warner Brothers film The Sun Is Also A Star and the accompanying video has been viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube.
Meanwhile the video that accompanies I.F.L.Y. has already notched up two and a half million views and Focus (feat. 21 Savage) also earned critical acclaim upon its June release with Billboard writing: “Bazzi’s butterfly fusion of singing and rapping is as effortless as ever.”
Bazzi’s style of blending singing and rapping is not unique, there are others who are exploring similar territory, and musically his work is also mostly mainstream.
Production wise he does explore using small doses of ambient sound which adds a little interest.
Most of the songs are short, two of them (No Way and Conversations With Myself) are under two minutes and only one of the 11 tracks is over three minutes, and then only just at 3.04.
There are many reasons why artists do this, the most common one being that the song requires no more.
For some reason I was often left feeling as if the songs were unresolved. Then again sometimes this may have been a blessing.
The best songs on the disc were definitely the previously mentioned hit singles which may suggest that the rest of the album is comprised of fillers. This would do them a disservice because there are some memorable moments among them.
Soul Searching is Bazzi’s second album following on from the success of his 2018 debut release Cosmic which boasts over two billion streams so he has definitely developed a strong fan base.
