The Album | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 19, 2020 | |||
Genre | R&B [1] | |||
Length | 77:19 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
| |||
Teyana Taylor chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from The Album | ||||
|
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 78/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Clash | 9/10 [4] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [1] |
NME | [5] |
Pitchfork | 7.3/10 [6] |
Rolling Stone | [7] |
Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ ( ) [8] |
The Album is the third studio album by American singer Teyana Taylor. The album was released on June 19, 2020, through GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings, almost exactly two years after her 8 track second album K.T.S.E. The album was preceded by the release of six singles "How You Want It?", "Morning", "We Got Love", "Made It", "Bare wit Me" and "Wake Up Love". The 23-track album features guest appearances from Erykah Badu, Kehlani, Big Sean, Lauryn Hill, Future, Rick Ross, Quavo, and Missy Elliott. Taylor's husband, Iman Shumpert and their daughter Junie also appear.
Following the release of her second studio album K.T.S.E. (2018), Taylor announced that she would be updating the album and re-releasing it in June or July. [9] [10] [11] After a Twitter user asked for the whereabouts of her updated album, Taylor revealed that her hopes for a new version had been deflated. "I guess we ain't getting one," she bluntly replied. Minutes later, Taylor sent a second tweet explaining how she intends to release the updated music. "A lot of clearance issues, shit takes time. At this point I will leave album the way it is & will just debut the extended records thru my visuals!" she said. [12] [13] In October 2019, Taylor spoke to Entertainment Weekly that she was working on a new album titled, The Album after many disappointments and frustrations with her previous record. She revealed that she took more creative control on the album in comparison to K.T.S.E., which had a verse cut without her knowledge and was shorter than she wanted. She said that she was ready to "take full accountability that I need to be 110 percent on everything that I do" and not let anyone compromise her creative vision. She revealed that for the album, she was focused on "fixing what didn't work the first time, getting a better rollout, more records, longer records. . . just giving everybody more." She aimed to release new music by the next year. [14]
Two days prior to the album's release, Taylor celebrated her Juneteenth release with an album listening party, alongside friends like Cardi B, Lena Waithe, Karrueche Tran, and Winnie Harlow. [15] [16] Taylor sparked controversy and was criticized by social media outlets after photos from the event showed most attendees with their masks partially off or not on at all despite the restrictions to keep them on while being in public during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. [17] [18] [19] [20] Taylor went on to address the apparent lack of masks: "... For all the internet covid experts 🙄😜we had REAL Covid Police & medics that made sure we were all safe and able to have a good time all while following covid regulations," she wrote. "Custom '#TheAlbum' Masks and hazmat suits were also provided!" [21] [22] Taylor shed more light on the situation during a video interview with Angie Martinez, doubling down on her claims that she and her team took extra steps to ensure guests' safety.
"So this is what I knew was kind of gonna happen, If you notice, we all had yellow suits. They were custom HAZMAT suits ... custom masks, everything ... It was hot. You know, as a pregnant woman, I can't breathe in them things. You got to realize, if everybody got on masks, the photographers can't get what they want ... So the moment n***as take their masks off for five minutes, it's flash, flash, flash, flash ... So now it's just looking like we don't even have 'em on ... as soon as we put them back on, now all the cameras is ghosts, 'cause it does nothing for the lenses." [23]
Taylor went on to say it was a 60-person party in a 15,000-feet house with a lot of activity taking place outside. She also said there were "COVID prevention people" at the event. "Pretty much the 'COVID police' ... You could not even walk in the house without putting on your HAZMAT suit and your mask," Taylor said. "... We were extremely safe." [23]
Taylor explained why she decided to release the album on Juneteenth:
"With releasing the album on Juneteenth, it's important because if you noticed the lead singles that I led with were "Made It" and "We Got Love". So I've always been here. I've always been about us being celebrated and celebrating my culture and my people. For everything to happen, from my album getting delayed and it falls perfectly on Juneteenth, yes, it's a celebration. [24]
Complex 's Eric Diep summarized the album: "The album is broken up by "studio" rooms (which appropriately spell out "album" reading from top to bottom). At 23 songs in length, it is significantly longer than Taylor's previous album, K.T.S.E. , which was eight songs. Taylor was part of G.O.O.D. Music's seven-song album rollout, promising to re-release an updated version of K.T.S.E., but it never materialized. From those sessions, "We Got Love" appears at the end of The Album, replacing Kanye West with her doing his verse. Lauryn Hill speaks about wealth and abundance at the end". [25] Taylor's husband Iman Shumpert appears on "Wake Up Love", while their daughter Junie is featured on "Come Back to Me." [25]
The Album debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 32,000 album-equivalent units (including pure album sales of 4,000 copies) in its first week. [26] This became Taylor's first US top-ten debut on the chart. [26]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Intro" |
|
| 2:47 |
2. | "Come Back to Me" (featuring Rick Ross and Junie) |
| DJ Camper | 4:09 |
3. | "Wake Up Love" (featuring Iman) |
|
| 3:33 |
4. | "Lowkey" (featuring Erykah Badu) |
| 4:17 | |
5. | "Let's Build" (featuring Quavo) |
|
| 2:31 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
6. | "1800-One-Night" |
|
| 2:32 |
7. | "Morning" (with Kehlani) |
|
| 4:47 |
8. | "Boomin" (featuring Missy Elliott and Future) |
| 5:31 | |
9. | "69" |
|
| 2:41 |
10. | "Killa" (featuring Davido) |
|
| 3:02 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
11. | "Bad" |
| 1:27 | |
12. | "Wrong Bitch" |
|
| 2:39 |
13. | "Shoot It Up" (featuring Big Sean) |
| 3:47 | |
14. | "Bare Wit Me" |
|
| 2:08 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
15. | "Lose Each Other" |
|
| 2:19 |
16. | "Concrete" |
|
| 3:57 |
17. | "Still" |
|
| 4:04 |
18. | "Ever Ever" |
| Nova Wav | 4:41 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
19. | "Try Again" |
|
| 2:58 |
20. | "Friends" |
| Nova Wav | 2:24 |
21. | "How You Want It?" (featuring King Combs) |
|
| 3:41 |
22. | "Made It" |
|
| 3:18 |
23. | "We Got Love" (featuring Lauryn Hill) |
|
| 4:06 |
Total length: | 77:19 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
24. | "How You Want It?" (featuring King Combs) | 3:49 |
25. | "Morning" (with Kehlani) | 4:22 |
26. | "Bare Wit Me" | 4:53 |
27. | "Wake Up Love" (featuring Iman) | 3:38 |
28. | "Made It" | 4:40 |
29. | "We Got Love" (featuring Lauryn Hill) | 4:22 |
Notes
Sample credits
Credits adapted from Tidal and YouTube. [28] [29] [30]
Notes
Chart (2020) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [31] | 72 |
UK Albums (OCC) [32] | 76 |
UK R&B Albums (OCC) [33] | 12 |
US Billboard 200 [34] | 8 |
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) [35] | 6 |
Evan Peter Mast, also known by his stage name E*vax or E.VAX, is an American electronic music artist and record producer. He is one-half of the New York–based electronic rock band Ratatat, alongside Mike Stroud.
"Doo Wop (That Thing)" is a song by American recording artist Lauryn Hill for her debut solo studio album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998). It was written and produced by Hill. The song was released as her solo debut and lead single from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill on August 10, 1998, by Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records. No commercial release was originally intended for the single in the US, but limited-quantity physical formats were issued two months later, on October 27.
Just One Night is the fourth studio album by English singer Samantha Fox. It was released on 21 June 1991 by Jive Records. In addition to longtime collaborators Full Force, the album also features production from Robert Clivillés and David Cole of C+C Music Factory. The lead single, "(Hurt Me! Hurt Me!) But the Pants Stay On", had some radio airplay, but failed to receive much attention. The album's second single, "Another Woman ", remixed for radio, charted moderately in some continental European countries. The radio remix of "Another Woman ", along with the third single, "Just One Night", and fourth single, "Spirit of America", written by Mama's Boys member Pat McManus and featuring a guitar solo by Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest, were subsequently included on Fox's 1992 Greatest Hits album.
Teyana Me Shay Jacqueli Shumpert is an American singer, songwriter, actress, model, dancer, choreographer, and music video director. After choreographing the video for Beyoncé's 2006 single "Ring the Alarm," she signed a recording contract with the Neptunes' Star Trak Entertainment, an imprint of Interscope Records to embark on a career as an recording artist the following year. Taylor appeared on MTV's My Super Sweet 16 prior to the release of her 2008 debut single, "Google Me." Despite lukewarm commercial response, she later gained wider attention in 2010 for her uncredited guest performances on the songs "Dark Fantasy" and "Hell of a Life" by Kanye West, from his highly-acclaimed album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). She parted ways with Star Trak and Interscope in favor of signing with West's GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings two years later.
"Dark Fantasy" is a song by American hip hop recording artist and producer Kanye West from his fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). The song serves as the opening track of the album, and was written by West, Ernest Wilson, Jeff Bhasker, Mike Dean and Robert Diggs. It features an opening narrative delivered by rapper Nicki Minaj, and singers Teyana Taylor and Justin Vernon contribute to the song's hook and provide background vocals. The track heavily samples "In High Places" by Mike Oldfield. The song introduces several of the themes presented on the album and features numerous pop culture references, a gospel-inspired production style, and piano-driven composition. The song received acclaim from music critics, who praised the song as a strong opener to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, complementing West's vocal delivery and the song's production.
VII is the debut studio album by American recording artist Teyana Taylor. The album was released on November 4, 2014, by Def Jam Recordings and GOOD Music. Leading up to the album's release, Teyana released the mixtape The Misunderstanding of Teyana Taylor (2012), along with collaborating on the GOOD Music compilation album Cruel Summer (2012). The album features guest appearances from Chris Brown, Fabolous, Pusha T and Yo Gotti. The album was executively produced by Che Pope & Teyana Taylor. Recording took place at Jungle City Studios in New York & KMA Studios, NYC, as well as The Kennedy Compound in North Hollywood, California & Labren Studio in Inglewood, CA.
American singer Teyana Taylor has released three studio albums, one compilation album, three mixtapes, and fifteen singles. In 2009, Taylor released her first mixtape, From a Planet Called Harlem, which included her debut single "Google Me". It debuted at its peak of number ninety on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Around this time, Taylor featured on songs with the likes of Trey Songz, Missy Elliott, and Kanye West. Taylor has spoken about her inspiration from fellow female musician Lauryn Hill, which was noted with the release of her second mixtape in 2012. The mixtape, entitled The Misunderstanding of Teyana Taylor, takes its name from Hill's album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
"Fade" is a song by American rapper Kanye West from his seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo (2016). The song features vocals from Post Malone and Ty Dolla Sign. It was first played at West's Yeezy Season 2 show in September 2015, before later being released for digital download and streaming as the third and final single from the album on September 9, 2016, through GOOD Music and Def Jam. 11 days later, the aforementioned labels serviced the song to radio stations across the United States. A hip house song with club elements, it samples Mr. Fingers's "Mystery of Love", Rare Earth's and The Undisputed Truth's respective cover versions of "(I Know) I'm Losing You", Hardrive's "Deep Inside", and Barbara Tucker's "I Get Lifted ". The lyrics of the song focus on trying to hold on to a fading love.
"Champions" is a song by American rappers Kanye West, Gucci Mane, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott, Yo Gotti, Quavo, and Desiigner. It was originally intended to be released as the lead single from the scrapped GOOD Music compilation album Cruel Winter. The song was produced by West alongside Low Pros and Mike Dean, with co-production from Derek Watkins and Charlie Heat, and additional production from Noah Goldstein. A freestyle video was released by Teyana Taylor in September 2016.
Daytona is the third studio album by American rapper Pusha T. It was released on May 25, 2018, by G.O.O.D. Music and Def Jam Recordings. The album features guest appearances from Rick Ross and Kanye West, and uncredited additional vocals by Tony Williams and 070 Shake. Kanye West also served as executive producer and produced all of its tracks, with additional production from Andrew Dawson and Mike Dean.
K.T.S.E. is the second studio album by American recording artist Teyana Taylor, released on June 22, 2018, by GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings.
"Ghost Town" is a song by American rapper Kanye West from his eighth studio album, Ye (2018). The song features vocals from PartyNextDoor, Kid Cudi, and 070 Shake. It was produced by West while co-produced by Mike Dean, and features additional production from Francis and the Lights, Benny Blanco and Noah Goldstein. The song is a hip hop track, which features psychedelic elements. It is composed around a sample of "Take Me for a Little While", performed by the Royal Jesters, and also includes a sample of "Someday", performed by Shirley Ann Lee.
Modus Vivendi is the debut studio album by American alternative pop artist 070 Shake. It was released by GOOD Music and Def Jam on January 17, 2020. It was promoted by the singles "Morrow", "Nice to Have", "Under the Moon" and "Guilty Conscience", and features production from Mike Dean and indie rock musician Dave Hamelin, among others.
The Return is the debut studio album by Zambian singer-songwriter and rapper Sampa the Great. It was released in September 2019 and peaked at number 12 on the ARIA Charts.
"How You Want It?" is a song by American recording artist Teyana Taylor featuring King Combs. It was released as a single via GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings on August 2, 2019. The song was written by Teyana Taylor, Sean Combs, Eric Bellinger, Nashiem Myrick, Mason Betha, Keisha Spivey, Curtis Mayfield, alongside its producers, BoogzDaBeast, Cardiak, and Hitmaka.
Survival is the debut studio album by American rapper Dave East. It was released on November 8, 2019, through Def Jam Recordings, Mass Appeal Records, and From the Dirt. The album features guest appearances from Teyana Taylor, Rick Ross, Nas, E-40, The-Dream, Fabolous, Gunna, Jacquees, Lil Baby, and Ty Dolla Sign, among others. It was supported by one single: "Alone" featuring Jacquees.
"We Got Love" is a song by American singer-songwriter Teyana Taylor released as a single on December 6, 2019. A version featuring Lauryn Hill was released on March 13, 2020.
Detroit 2 is the fifth studio album by American rapper Big Sean, released through GOOD Music on September 4, 2020, with distribution handled by Def Jam Recordings. The album serves as a sequel to Sean's 2012 mixtape, Detroit. It features guest appearances from Eminem, Royce da 5'9", Dwele, Post Malone, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, Diddy, Kash Doll, and Nipsey Hussle, among others. The deluxe edition includes additional features from ASAP Ferg and Hit-Boy.
Lianne La Havas is the third studio album by English singer Lianne La Havas. The album was released on 17 July 2020. Released after a five-year hiatus and written following La Havas' break-up, the album was inspired by the life cycle of nature and its ability to thrive, go away, and come back stronger. Recording of the album took place between October 2019 and December 2019, with sessions taking place in London, Bath and New York. The album's production was handled by La Havas along with long-term collaborator Matt Hales, co-producers Beni Giles, Sam Crowe and guest co-producer Mura Masa.
The Last Goodbye is the fourth studio album by the American electronic music duo Odesza, released on July 22, 2022 through Ninja Tune and Foreign Family Collective. It is the duo's first studio album in five years, after A Moment Apart.