Nearly all of them are simple and pretty, like “Mean It,” a gentle and poignant acoustic song with a chorus that gets more lodged in your chest each time H.E.R. Its warm, ’80s-inspired production and schmaltzy lyrics sound like something you’d heard on a late-night slow jams radio show.īallads were a staple of H.E.R.’s initial five EPs, and she again uses them frequently on Back of My Mind, for better or worse. With the help of songwriter Ant Clemons, H.E.R.’s delicate lilt folds in beautifully with the beat as she warns a lover to be careful with her heart. One of those moments is on “Damage,” which thoughtfully incorporates a late-career Herb Alpert sample (one Bone Thugs-N-Harmony fans might recall) by adding in plucks of piano, thudding drums, and a big low end. But it also has moments of real promise, when H.E.R.-the four-time Grammy-award winner born Gabriella Wilson who’s been pitched to audiences for years now as a dynamic, mysterious talent-lives up to the hype. At 21 tracks, the album is too long, musically uneven, and leans on unnecessary guest appearances. Back of My Mind never hits the triumphant high of its opener again.
There’s a gnarly guitar solo that she’s become known for at her many award-show performances, references to eating in fine-dining establishments in Paris, and a pretty piano outro. On “We Made It,” over a glimmering sample moving in reverse, the singer and guitarist nimbly hits swirls of falsetto notes, sing-songy raps, and full-on wails-the only time she does so on the album. The best song on Back of My Mind, H.E.R.’s debut full-length, is the first one.
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