Brent Faiyaz's Wasteland Review
In this article, Peter dives into the sadly disappointing album Wasteland by Brent Faiyaz.
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Wasteland (More Like Waste of Time) by Brent Faiyaz Review
Wasteland (More Like Waste of Time) by Brent Faiyaz Review
By Peter Easterwood
Christopher Brent Wood, also known as Brent Faiyaz, is a famous American R&B artist from Colombia, MD. He came onto the music scene releasing a few singles, an album (Sonder Son, which is very inconsistent), and two EPs (A.M Paradox and Lost). He gained a large following from the Lost EP, with a song off there named “Trust”. The song got a lot of its attention from this unknown app called “TikTok”. It was used in both edits and lip syncs. With this random influx of fans, his upcoming album was filled to the brim with hype.
On Feb 7, 2020, Brent Faiyaz released his second album, F*** the World. A very in-your-face, I don’t care what you think album (an idea which is shown even in the title). The main vibe he gives off is fed off of the “old” Weeknd vibe (House of Balloons era). The issue is that the vibe is really played out by Faiyaz, and loses the darkness of it, too. Either way, F*** the World shows a more experimental sound from his other releases, with more faster-paced beats, and a much cleaner mixing job by the producers. The main constant issue is with the consistency. With this faster-paced sound, he seems to need a break right afterward.
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On this album, Faiyaz always follows fast-paced songs with slow-paced songs. This is not necessarily an issue, but who doesn’t want multiple fast tracks in a row? For example, the song “Clouded” talks about his love life with a girl, and is followed with the title track “F*** the World (Summer in London)”. "Clouded" hits the listener with (probably) the cleanest song on the album. His voice doesn’t block out the beat but doesn’t fall behind it either. It locks on with the fast pace so well, and yet the title track afterward loses that momentum quickly (or slowly, since the song is slow). The title track opens with him lighting what seems to be a joint, and then he begins to sing, but his voice’s pitch is lowered. Sometimes, his regular singing voice peaks through, but the lowered pitch is the running vocal, even in the background. It is just so slow. The beat doesn’t add much, either-- just a couple of distorted hi-hats, and a very underwhelming bass hit before the chorus. The whole album follows this poor idea, and the worst part is, at the end of certain tracks, he speaks on the thoughts of this aura his music brings. Even with these abundant issues, he took bigger strides with the production, being much cleaner than his last album Sonder Son, and it helped him gain more consistent listeners. The hype, again, was still at an all-time high, with everyone waiting for that one breakthrough album that will raise his ceiling from average R&B artist to good.
Photo by Wikimedia Commons
Even with these complaints, the album has received a bunch of positive reviews. One specific positive review is from an infamous review-based website known as Pitchfork. Alphonso Pierre, a writer for Pitchfork, gave F*** the World a 7.5 out of 10, saying, “The Maryland crooner’s dreamy R&B portrays a world where sex is a game and there are no consequences for anything.” Pierre compliments Faiyaz’s way of using the sweetness of the instruments used in the album and makes them a part of his dark, narcissistic world. After F*** the World, he left everyone on hold, to work on his upcoming album, which would soon follow.
Through his two-year “hiatus,” he released eight singles, which may come off as nothing much, but a couple of scrapped songs from his F*** the World album, but six of them would be part of his upcoming album. The hype grew with the release of those singles, but none were that good, the best being “Gravity" (feat. Tyler, the Creator). The worst, by far, is “Price of Fame”, following the same route as the song “F*** the World,” but he speeds up in the middle, which is supposed to be the BIG moment of the track. “Price of Fame” was released in June 24, 2022. Nine days afterward, he released the most hyped album of his career: Wasteland. Not only is it the most hyped, but it is also the album that he writes a story about, a story of a “villain” in a relationship.
Wasteland opens with “Villain’s Theme”, an intro track, where Faiyaz is being interviewed about his life, and how his music influences that life. The first song, “Loose Change”, uses classical string instruments as the cool lead. Sadly, again, there’s no big climax at the end, and the lyrics are so bleh, especially at the end, where he just starts talking. It kind of seems like he tries to extend the song to last unnecessarily. The album continues on this route, with some hits here and there, like the song “All Mine.” Being the most played song on the album, it doesn’t hold back lyrically or beat-wise. Right away, a fat bass hits the listener’s ear, and Faiyaz’s lyrics are the most straightforward of the whole album. The whole time, he talks about how bad of a boyfriend he was, but how good a lover he is-- just straight up open about it. The worst part is that the story itself is intriguing, but the album is just filled with a lot of boring, uninteresting songs.
Photo by Pix4free
The first half of the album contains four singles out of the six I mentioned (“Gravity”, “All Mine”, “Wasting Time”, and “Price of Fame”). This means that 44% percent of the first half is songs that were already released. It makes the album feel like something I have already heard most of. The second half, on the other hand, has only one single out of its ten songs, kind of making it sound more fresh and new compared to the first half.
Photo By Rawpixel
The “freshness” doesn’t help the album stay consistent. It is probably less consistent than the first half, to be frank. The most listened-to song in this half is named “Dead Man Walking.” The whole song is a way for Faiyaz to talk about how he doesn’t care how much he spends, the drugs he takes, or the time he wastes, since he’s still young. Surprisingly, the mixing is the worst part. The atmospheric strings that run the beat are just way too loud compared to Faiyaz’s voice. The sound of the song had so much potential if fleshed out more, but the production on it leaves it flat, and just sad to listen to. Out of every spot in the album, it shines with the skits and ending.
The skits help paint this villain persona that Faiyaz plays. He can’t control his cheating tendencies, nor can he balance out his personal life with his professional life. All of this comes out with the introduction of an upcoming child he has with his unnamed lover, who can’t take the attention he gets, and the hate his lover has gotten for having a child with him. Their relationship, already icy, deteriorates even more with the second to last track-- “Wake Up Call.” The skit starts with Faiyaz entering his house with no one being home. He calls his unnamed lover. She answers, crying, talking about how she can’t take this life anymore, and how Faiyaz has changed for the worse and doesn’t deserve the child anymore. Faiyaz, in distress, tries to find out where she is, and she answers with: “I've decided to come to the place where I fell in love with you.” With that info, he rushes out of the house in his car to reach her. Faiyaz pleads with her to not do anything that will hurt her or the baby. She tells him: “No, you can't always get what you want.” He calls 911 for help, hoping that, either they reach her, or he does, but he is going too fast to be able to keep up with his surroundings. Faiyaz crashes into what sounds like a semi-truck and, with that, the listener can infer that he has passed and so has the girl, with the song ending with waves.
The final track, “Angel”, is placed so eerily after the skit that it could give the listener chills down their spine. Faiyaz talks from the self-conscious side of his mind, comparing himself to his love. Every time he is around her, he feels small. She is so perfect in his eyes, and he is so full of holes that it is almost impossible for him not to feel this way. He calls his love an angel that fell from heaven. He tells her that, if she were to ever leave his side, he would die. The eeriness of this track is always present, being placed right after the dark ending of the two lovers' lives. On the other hand, it adds a bunch to the song, with the bright, beautiful atmosphere, almost like he is sending the message that they are in a better place together.
Photo by Free SVG
Altogether, the album can be described with one word: inconsistent. That is the worst part of it. His voice, at some point on the album, seems so strained, like he has reached his limits vocally. It sucks that not enough work was put into the lyricism or sound. If it were to be worked on a little harder, the album would have been a dark and twisted, yet beautiful album. With all of these complaints, the album has some bright spots, especially in the ending. The dramatics of it run the show, and there’s no issue with that. It adds to it, and lessens the need for Faiyaz to write the story into the songs. Overall, I’d give the album a 5.6/10. Again, it is just too inconsistent. It left me disappointed as a listener, hoping that Faiyaz would finally break through, but ended up making another meh album.
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