6LACK ‘Since I Have a Lover’ Album Review

Since I Have A Lover

6LACK

• Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
• Date: 24 Mar, 2023
• Content: explicit
• Region: NGA
• Track(s): 19
• ℗ 2023 Through Love Renaissance for Interscope Records.

It’s true that a lot of time has passed since 6LACK’s 2018 album East Atlanta Love Letter, which was one of the best albums published that year and featured an individualist capable of combining heavenly R&B and harsh raps, was released.

6LACK effortlessly drew from both wells. Six years later, on the dense, introspective, and complicated “Since I Have A Lover,” 6LACK is recalibrating his ambitions and cautioning Apple Music in a pre-release interview: “I made it a priority to take care of myself first.”

But even with a platinum-selling debut and appearances on Offset and J. Cole’s critically praised East Atlanta Love Letter, 6LACK occasionally disappears into the background when he’s not stealing the show. Luckily, with this extensive, complex collection, his personality and artistic prowess have finally found a home. Even when 6LACK is working automatically, the emotional hour goes by quickly while hiding intellectual romanticisms and fun to discover musical sparks.

Love Renaissance and Interscope Records are currently home to 6lack. Moreover, he is a part of Spillage Village, an Atlanta-Baltimore music group started by EarthGang and JID. 6lack has been nominated for three Grammy Awards and has won an MTV Video Music Award.

Album Art

With his arms extended and relishing in what appears to be dawn, 6lack is seen dressed in what appear to be black slacks, no shirt, and a bandana tied tightly to his head. The sun can be seen slowly casting its light on the superstar as he stands in his full glory. The area behind him is rather gloomy, which may be interpreted as 6lack finally seeing the light and emerging from the “dark place” he had been in. His outstretched arms are suggestive of a phoenix emerging from the ashes and prepared to fly once more.

Tracks And Features

Voicemails guiding 6LACK in various directions in pursuit of new music are played at the beginning of the album’s 19 songs, “Cold Feet,” which immediately fumbles along in the dark. This empathetic selfishness is reflected in the songwriting. It is a work of unshakeable self-belief; these are his views, his experiences, and his story. “Since I Have A Lover” contains some of his most personal writing to date. With its sparse, disjointed, even illusionary air, opener “cold feet” immediately conveys its proximity. The album’s climactic track, “Since I Have A Lover,” is among the 19 songs of nearly an hour of music, offering a window into a frequently darkened soul.

Although previous tracks may have been governed by heartbreak, this presentation contains other lessons. Relationship conflicts are introduced in “Inwood Hill Park,” with a lover asking, “Don’t you know you change the patterns in my sleep?,” but for better or worse, everything works out. Since 6LACK’s cartoonish Pepé Le Pew impression on their aforementioned viral smash “Mushroom Chocolate,” who hilariously claimed to be “Cupid with the shits / Got to act, fast arrow on my hip,” the merged sensual verses with partner Qui on “Wunna Dem” get an update. The penner of the title track calls it “an exhale, it’s relief, it’s trust, it’s bliss, it’s unreal,” while the penultimate track’s candlelit ballad wickedly conveys that love candor, frequently inexplicable: “I’ve been trying to get you to testify.”

Lulling R&B guitar plucking regularly veers into background music territory with the sluggish drum rhythm of “Fatal Attraction” (albeit with a subtle C-3PO connection, perhaps to his autotune-tinged voice), or the billowing hazy atmospherics of “B4L.” On “Testify,” the instrument shines brilliantly as a complement to 6LACK’s assertive presence and crystal-clear pronunciation, which are boosted by studio techniques. On “Preach,” ascending backing voices, horns, and pads enhance a pompous performance. “Tit for Tatlovely “‘s staccato takes beg for a longer track. The album’s finest song, “Temporary,” by Don Toliver, brazenly declares in its chorus that “most females are temporary / this time it’s not.”

The project’s climax space is introduced by “Rent Free,” and “Tales In Motionfluid”‘s soul exhilarates with its creativity. Finishing with “NRH” is an easy album to get lost in but a challenging project to understand fully.

Tracklist

NO	TITLE	TIME
1	cold feet	2:35
2	Inwood Hill Park	3:09
3	Since I Have A Lover	4:42
4	playin house	3:33
5	Fatal Attraction	3:16
6	Spirited Away	3:08
7	chasing feeling	1:40
8	preach	2:36
9	Tit For Tat	2:13
10	Talkback	3:04
11	wunna dem (& QUIN)	1:51
12	B4L	3:48
13	Decatur	2:57
14	Talk	3:30
15	Temporary (feat. Don Toliver)	2:58
16	Rent Free	3:22
17	Stories In Motion	3:26
18	Testify	3:51
19	NRH	2:36

Album Summary

Indeed, this is a work of striking subtlety. It produces a language resembling that of 6LACK that is well loved and something that is substantially more mature than before. Maybe 6LACK really does have a lover now as those lyrics were very heartfelt.

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