Anderson .Paak - Malibu
Mar 20, 2021
80
In the boisterous streets of New Orleans, life couldn’t really get much better. Saxophones muffled but blaring through local bars, the yells and screams of the people around, and the bright sky shining into the historic buildings in this large city. But this isn’t where we are. In the alleys, far away from the centre of town, we find this sophisticated jazzy album “Malibu”, an underrated outlier outstander in the distance, no short of true greatness. All alone in this empty alleyway, not making much noise. You feel calm, you feel happy, you feel loved. That’s what “Malibu” gives you, just only off one single listen, then you’re hooked.

Neo-soul is a genre that always seems to intrigue me. Taking a completely different route with the already endearing R&B and making something unique. Classics “IGOR” and “Blonde” fall under this category, and now with “Malibu”, it instantly climbs my charts of some of my favorite albums ever. Filled with memorable moments, just off the opener alone, you’re completely immersed into it and you listen to the end, then again, then again. Just to add a little bit of context to this review, just last night I was introduced to the album and since then, I completed Anderson .Paak’s full discography just today and listened to “Malibu” around 5 other times. Seemingly my interest only rose the more and more I listened to it.

If you’re not like me and you’ve listened to this album before, you should know how much light it truly shows. The legato flows, the neo-jazz production, the variety of vocals, the chemistry of the features, you know, what makes it great, shouldn’t be really new to you. How much do I need to explain? This is an album that’s easily accessible and something you could take in an hour, know what it’s about, recollect your thoughts, and have an initial opinion on it. But for the people who don’t know how they feel or never even have listened to it, listen to the album immediately. It’s a great chill experience to sit back and relax. Thanks again to @eliiscool5 for the recommendation, this is now a staple in my favorites list. Although .Paak is very cool on the album, he of course is still inferior in the swag meter against eliiscool5, the best person ever. Now to the review!

The album has this indescribable quality about it that really makes me love it. It hooked me off first listen. Is it the beautiful vocal melodies in the back? Is it the saxophones, an instrument I’m deeply in love with? Or is it just Paak itself. It’s all of those, combined. The album has this personal touch to it, that soulfulness really struck a chord with me. It’s a lovely and blissful record that goes through your ears and straight down to your heart. This album is thought-provoking to say the least, as throughout its 61 minute run time, all I thought about was beatific memories of the distant past. A refresher from my usual mellow, depressing music (The Joj). The feeling of joy that overcomes me reminds me of other neo-soul albums like Tyler, The Creator’s “Flower Boy” or Kali Uchis’ “Isolation”, which saying that’s a compliment is an understatement.

If I can describe “Malibu” with just one word, it would be slick, because that perfectly describes it’s tone and even subject matter at some points. The vocal performances have this Kendrick-like flow, sometimes being really intricate, but sometimes flowing into each other legato style in this higher-pitched voice in a cocky manner. It melds well into the click-clackity, jazzy, multi-layered production so well. Not to mention the occasional choir-like melodies in the back that really ties those individual tracks together. Now depending on the track, the lyricism would fall under being “slick” as well. What I mean by this is that he tends to be braggadocious, talking about women, money, fame, etc. What separates him from others is that he constructs his song-writing in a way that is impressive and lighthearted to the point that it’s not obnoxious, it’s humorous. That light-hearted tone I’d say takes up around 50% of the album, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t to be taken seriously. There is another 50% of the album that’s more serious, and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Within the album, often hidden but some blunt, there are underlying tones that are quite serious. Speaking either of Anderson's personal life, either past or present, really getting to know the artist. This serious connection between the audience and the artist really adds to the “personal touch” that I touched up on earlier in the review. It provides a little bit of context to the story of the album. If the album completely depended on the playful tone blanket that makes the songs sound “happy”, the soul of the album would’ve left itself. There wouldn’t be much meaning. But luckily .Paak knocked it out of the park here. In between tracks there are these interludes, sampling different pieces of media, for example the film ‘Big Wednesday’ was sampled adding the lyrics...

“I see here they call you a masochist.
I like pain.
Can you be specific? What kind of pain do you like?
Any kind of pain.”

… to the song ‘The Season / Carry Me’. What’s brilliant about this lyric in particular, which applies to all of the other samples that the album uses as a transitioner, is it actually works thematically. These lyrics aren’t standalone, they provide foreshadowing into the next track, which in this example is .Paak speaks on the next song ‘Pull Me Thru’ about how a personal life experience a woman who is sadistic and how he’s a masochist for enjoying the pain inflicted on him. I could go over all of the other samples but I feel like you gist. A genius move, providing some of the cleanest transitions I’ve ever heard, and also touching up on his personal life. To really wrap this up, one of my favorite parts of this album is how intimate it gets, and with all of this, it adds so much more quality to it and more things for me to say about how much I love the album.

“Malibu” is a personal, soulful, and jazzy work of art in the form of music. An album that I’ve lived too long to never listen to, but will never regret that I did. The intimate touches, the underlying tones of seriousness, the occasional, playful lyricism, the choir melodies, the multi-layered jazz production, and the- you get it. The album is no short of great ideas. It’s an art of its own. It’s a relaxed love record, which is right down my alley. Easily Anderson’s best piece of work so far, and I can’t wait to see what’s next due to his extremely promising future.

Favorite Tracks: The Bird, Heart Don’t Stand A Chance, The Season / Carry Me, Put Me Thru, Parking Lot, Room In Here, Come Down, Silicon Valley, The Dreamer
Least Favorite Track: Water Fall (Interluuube)

86/100

๐•๐• ๐•›๐•š๐•‚๐• ๐•Ÿ๐•˜ (โ„™๐•ฅ.๐Ÿ™)

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5 Comments
2y
Anderson Paaking a lot of good music into one album ๐Ÿ˜‚ ๐Ÿคฃ
2y
This is a fantastic review, maybe it’s time I gave Andy the chance he deserves!
2y
wait matt should i start with this album to get into anderson paak
2y
@ADNIS Thank you very much, means a lot! You definitely should, he's great, and now I know :)
2y
@SMTCubes its what i started with, so yeah itll work, could fo chronologically tho!
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