In January 2022, Laroi first revealed the then-potential title of the album before referring to it as Kids Are Growing Up in March.[7] On 12 January 2023, Laroi posted an album trailer on YouTube, first teasing the album title and announcing the lead single "Love Again".[8] To release "the best music possible", he had "to take some time away from everything".[9] The era officially kicked off on 19 January with a 95-second intro song "I Can't Go Back to the Way It Was (Intro)", which did not end up on the final tracklist.[10] In an interview with Billboard in February, he explained that his debut was born out of "little ideas" and distanced himself from his previous mixtape F*ck Love 3, calling it "immature" and "a heat of the moment statement".[11] On 2 August, after four months of silence on the project, he announced that the album was finished, except for mixing and mastering.[12] He referred to the record as "the best music" he had ever made up to that point, and mentioned a short film accompanying the album release.[13] The rapper and singer reassured fans of The First Time being his best work in an official announcement post of the album on 25 October, following the release of the single "Too Much" with Jungkook and Central Cee.[14] Laroi shared the album tracklist on 1 November in an Instagram post.[15] The album's deluxe edition was released on 9 August 2024.[16]
Singles
The lead single of the album, "Love Again", was released on 27 January 2023.[17] The second single, "Kids Are Growing Up (Part 1)", was released on 10 February 2023.[18] The third single, "Where Do Your Spirit Go?", was released on 21 April 2023.[19] The fourth single, "Too Much", a collaboration with South Korean singer Jung Kook and British rapper Central Cee, was released on 20 October 2023.[20] The fifth single, "What Just Happened", was released exactly a week later.[21] The sixth single, "Bleed", was released exactly a week after that.[22] The seventh and final single, "What's the Move?", a collaboration with American rappers Future and BabyDrill, was released on 8 November 2023, two days before the album was released.[23]
On 26 January 2024, "Heaven" was released as the first single for the album's deluxe edition.[24] On 28 June 2024, the deluxe edition's second single, "Girls", was released.[25] "Baby I'm Back" was sent to Italian radio stations as the deluxe edition's third single on 27 September 2024.[26] The single "Thousand Miles", released on 22 April 2022, is also included on the deluxe edition.
Reception
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According to the review aggregator Metacritic, The First Time received "mixed or average reviews" based on a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 from 4 critic scores.[27] According to Slant, "The First Time features some of his weakest hooks to date and a slew of songs that are so unsatisfyingly short so as to feel half-finished."[30]
Commercial performance
In Australia, The First Time debuted at number three on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Laroi's second top-three entry, following F*ck Love.[31] It became his second top-40 album in the United Kingdom, entering the UK Albums Chart at number 29.[32]
"Sorry" contains samples of "That's Love", written by Khadi Jon Anwar, and performed by Sugar Hill, and "Takes a Little Time", written and performed by Tommy McGee.
"I Thought I Needed You" contains a sample of "Pictures", written and performed by Dave Dust.
"Deserve You" contains a sample of "Can't Get Close", written and performed by Sampha.
"You" contains a sample of "Can We", written by Jim-E Stack, Kacy Hill and Micah Gordon, and performed by Stack and Hill.
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