It has been a little over two years since R&B singer-songwriter Lucky Daye released Algorithm, his third studio album and his last one under RCA Records. Primarily produced by D’Mile and featuring collaborations with Teddy Swims and RAYE, the record blends psychedelic rock with futuristic R&B/Funk/Soul sounds. Since his fourth studio album, ALOUD!, releases on Friday, it made sense to take a look at this one.
Before we dive in to this awesome record, I have a confession to make: before this, I had never really delved into his music. The only bits and pieces that I knew of him were from features on other songs like “Smoke” by Victoria Monét, along with the songs that my sister used play in the car a few years back. I had been meaning to start listening to him seriously for a long time, but for some reason, I never did it, at least not until last month.
The album is 14 tracks long, with about an hour of listening time. D’Mile is known for working with artists like Victoria Monét, Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars. My 5 favorite songs off of Algorithm in order of placement on the album are “Never Leavin’ U Lonely,” “HERicane,” “Soft,” “Breakin’ The Bank” and “That’s You.”
“Never Leavin’ U Lonely” opens the album in style. It shows us (yes, us) listeners little sneak peeks at the 13 remaining tracks by playing about two seconds of each song before glitching to the next, along with some other abstract sounds in the background right before the actual track. It’s very similar to the opening track on Soul,PRESENT by fellow R&B singer Q Marsden. The track is a rock-influenced R&B track where Daye sings to his lover that he is, well, never leaving her lonely. This is one of the most danceable tracks on Algorithm and it served as a great start.
“HERicane,” the album’s lead single, follows it up with a more funk-driven track. It narrates one person wanting to “kiss” his lover in a “more than physical” way. The spacey instrumental sets the atmosphere as uncertain and distant, which is the state of the relationship being depicted. The Afrofuturistic aspect of this album shine the most in this track and you can easily tell through the bassline. He questions if the feeling between them is “love or lust” and asking her to “hold on and just ride” as they navigate their connection.
Reminiscent of “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Leave Me Alone” by Michael Jackson, “Soft” ends the exceptional opening 3-track sequence of Algorithm. The track depicts how love can give one a strange feeling. Daye questions if there’s a “spell” controlling him and he thinks he needs her so much to the point that she makes him feel soft. “Soft” in this case means “vulnerable”. He describes how he is able to tell that she is playing him, but he doesn’t mind. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who can relate to this; we know that we are a puppet to the other person, but we don’t care or we don’t want to confront it because of how in love we initially are.
“Breakin’ The Bank” is another upbeat funk-rock track that narrates the classic story of a woman who’s a gold digger. The lyrics say she kissed a man “just for the money” and she’s a “cat on the loose”. However, the poetic persona doesn’t mind too much because she makes him “feel like a man,” making her “worth every time”. There was even some play on Daye’s stage name: “Friction, skippin’ through the foreplay | If you wanted attention, then it’s your lucky day.” He then supposedly warns her future partners that she “don’t wait up for nobody” and if you want her, you need to “get your weight up”.
Finally, produced by D’Mile and co-produced by pop giant Bruno Mars, “That’s You” is a pure, slow and sensual track that is filled with yearning from top to bottom. The poetic persona laments on how he’s “living his wildest dreams,” but he still has a feeling of emptiness, even after trying love. He admits that he had been “so dumb” and “so wrong” and that the one thing missing in life is his desired person. Although this was one of the singles, I consider it the most unique and best song on Algorithm because it feels the most authentic and it has the iconic fade out at the end.
Algorithm is outstanding simply because it’s cohesive and is an awfully overlooked example of Afrofuturism. I honestly feel terrible because of the fact that I’ve known of Daye for well over six years and I never cared enough to really discover his discography. Whoever says that R&B is dead has clearly never paid a visit to Daye’s catalogue.
Daye’s fourth studio album, Aloud!, is set to be released on October 16.