Music review: Khalid bounces back with complex look at love in ‘After Sun Goes Down’
If you want to know how far Khalid has traveled in a year just look at his album covers. His summer 2024 16-track Sincere showed the R&B star solo in black and white looking at the camera equal parts faded and standoffish. In his new one out Friday he’s at the center of a crowd of sweaty dancers and lovers clearly in his element. He’s looking at the camera but this time inviting us in living color his hair blue.
The 17-track After the Sun Goes Down is an upbeat slightly throwback meditation on love in all its forms — lusty ecstatic devoted flirty defiant apprehensive revengeful and even post-passion cold. It’s a welcome return after his dour last outing.
One big thing that’s different this time is that Khalid is publicly out and proud a change that has given his music a directness. “You’re my type fly dark and handsome” he sings in Momentary Lovers. On the opening cut Medicine he’s lovesick: “You got me feeling stimulations I never felt.” So lusty confident and passionate has Khalid become now that large sections of After the Sun Goes Down sound like they could easily be on a Troye Sivan album. “The place your lips can go is for you to decide” he sings in the flirty and Sivan-esque Out of Body.
Tove Lo gets writing credit for two tunes the sun-kissed Instant and the shimmering Tank Top and Julia Michaels helped birth a pair the falsetto-fueled Angel Boy and the pop-forward Yes No Maybe. Darkchild swirls Out of Body with Middle Eastern rhythms and producer Ilya pops up all over the album helping background vocals too.
Some things haven’t changed like Khalid’s love of car culture name-checking the Cadillac Eldorado Lexus and an old Mercedes having the windows down or the windows up driving with the sunroof off. “Ride me like autobahns/Be on autopilot” he sings on Rendezvous. Last year his album included the warning song Please Don’t Fall in Love With Me. This year that’s going to be hard.
After the Sun Goes Down Khalid Four out of five stars. On repeat: In Plain Sight Nah and Angel Boy Skip it: Whenever You’re Gone For fans of: Sweaty clubs bedroom seduction driving at night
If you want to know how far Khalid has traveled in a year just look at his album covers. His summer 2024 16-track Sincere showed the R&B star solo in black and white looking at the camera equal parts faded and standoffish. In his new one out Friday he’s at the center of a crowd of sweaty dancers and lovers clearly in his element. He’s looking at the camera but this time inviting us in living color his hair blue.
The 17-track After the Sun Goes Down is an upbeat slightly throwback meditation on love in all its forms — lusty ecstatic devoted flirty defiant apprehensive revengeful and even post-passion cold. It’s a welcome return after his dour last outing.
One big thing that’s different this time is that Khalid is publicly out and proud a change that has given his music a directness. “You’re my type fly dark and handsome” he sings in Momentary Lovers. On the opening cut Medicine he’s lovesick: “You got me feeling stimulations I never felt.” So lusty confident and passionate has Khalid become now that large sections of After the Sun Goes Down sound like they could easily be on a Troye Sivan album. “The place your lips can go is for you to decide” he sings in the flirty and Sivan-esque Out of Body.
Tove Lo gets writing credit for two tunes the sun-kissed Instant and the shimmering Tank Top and Julia Michaels helped birth a pair the falsetto-fueled Angel Boy and the pop-forward Yes No Maybe. Darkchild swirls Out of Body with Middle Eastern rhythms and producer Ilya pops up all over the album helping background vocals too.
Some things haven’t changed like Khalid’s love of car culture name-checking the Cadillac Eldorado Lexus and an old Mercedes having the windows down or the windows up driving with the sunroof off. “Ride me like autobahns/Be on autopilot” he sings on Rendezvous. Last year his album included the warning song Please Don’t Fall in Love With Me. This year that’s going to be hard.
After the Sun Goes Down Khalid Four out of five stars. On repeat: In Plain Sight Nah and Angel Boy Skip it: Whenever You’re Gone For fans of: Sweaty clubs bedroom seduction driving at night
If you want to know how far Khalid has traveled in a year just look at his album covers. His summer 2024 16-track Sincere showed the R&B star solo in black and white looking at the camera equal parts faded and standoffish. In his new one out Friday he’s at the center of a crowd of sweaty dancers and lovers clearly in his element. He’s looking at the camera but this time inviting us in living color his hair blue.
The 17-track After the Sun Goes Down is an upbeat slightly throwback meditation on love in all its forms — lusty ecstatic devoted flirty defiant apprehensive revengeful and even post-passion cold. It’s a welcome return after his dour last outing.
One big thing that’s different this time is that Khalid is publicly out and proud a change that has given his music a directness. “You’re my type fly dark and handsome” he sings in Momentary Lovers. On the opening cut Medicine he’s lovesick: “You got me feeling stimulations I never felt.” So lusty confident and passionate has Khalid become now that large sections of After the Sun Goes Down sound like they could easily be on a Troye Sivan album. “The place your lips can go is for you to decide” he sings in the flirty and Sivan-esque Out of Body.
Tove Lo gets writing credit for two tunes the sun-kissed Instant and the shimmering Tank Top and Julia Michaels helped birth a pair the falsetto-fueled Angel Boy and the pop-forward Yes No Maybe. Darkchild swirls Out of Body with Middle Eastern rhythms and producer Ilya pops up all over the album helping background vocals too.
Some things haven’t changed like Khalid’s love of car culture name-checking the Cadillac Eldorado Lexus and an old Mercedes having the windows down or the windows up driving with the sunroof off. “Ride me like autobahns/Be on autopilot” he sings on Rendezvous. Last year his album included the warning song Please Don’t Fall in Love With Me. This year that’s going to be hard.
After the Sun Goes Down Khalid Four out of five stars. On repeat: In Plain Sight Nah and Angel Boy Skip it: Whenever You’re Gone For fans of: Sweaty clubs bedroom seduction driving at night
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Music review: Khalid bounces back with complex look at love in ‘After Sun Goes Down’
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