Brent Faiyaz just released his highly anticipated sophomore album WASTELAND. The Maryland-born R&B singer-songwriter explores his newfound music stardom, relationships, and love across a 19-track album. The project features an array of R&B heavy hitters on both the production and vocals including Raphael Saadiq, NO ID, Alicia Keys, and the Neptunes.
Faiyaz has captured the attention of listeners everywhere with his ability to make imperfect situations sound beautiful through honest serenades. Furthermore, WASTELAND stands out as one of the best R&B releases of this year.
Check Out Brent’s WELCOME TO WASTELAND video
Faiyaz teased the album last month by posting a trailer on his Instagram. The single rollout spanned four different singles: Dead Man Walking, Gravity, Wasting Time, and Price of Fame. Faiyaz mentioned in his recent Vogue interview, that the album was a collection of songs that came together because of a common theme. Originally, the intention was not to create a new album, only while crafting the songs later on he realize it would become a body of work. Moreover, Faiyaz’s artistic muse for WASTELAND came from films namely Jackie Brown and Vanilla Sky. The album displays experimental and expansive sounds on tracks like ROLE MODEL, GHETTO GATSBY, and LOOSE CHANGE.
With the holistic approach that Faiyaz took, the album highlights a myriad of themes within love, distance, and relationships. Faiyaz is speaking his thoughts. In the intro of the album, Faiyaz addresses naysayers who dismiss his music based on toxicity critiques in lyrics like “ Motherfuckers like to use that word, “Toxic”, But that’s the internet word that people like to attach to shit”. Faiyaz has a renewed sense of confidence in his artistry with every new release.
The album is already set to make a splash on the Billboard Hot 200, projected to debut at No.1. If it makes its projection, it will be in great R&B company with Summer Walker’s Still Over It album being the last R&B album to achieve the feat as of lately.
Listen to WASTELAND by Brent Faiyaz
Follow Brent Faiyaz on Instagram
