Candydrip＜完全生産限定盤＞

2020年代を牽引するメロウR&Bの旗手=Lucky Daye(ラッキー・デイ)の2nd アルバム『Candydrip』

2020年代を牽引するメロウR&Bの旗手=Lucky Daye(ラッキー・デイ)。アメリカ・ニューオリンズ出身。BoyzIIMen、エラ・メイ他に楽曲を提供する等、ソングライターとしての活動を経て、2018年にRCA傘下のKeep Cool Records と契約。2019年に発売されたデビュー・アルバム『Painted』は、プロデューサーにリアーナやジェニファー・ロペス等との仕事で知られるD'Mile を迎え制作され、2020年のグラミー賞で最優秀R&Bアルバム賞他、計4部門にノミネートされた。
2022年3月10日に配信リリースされた2nd アルバムとなる本作『Candydrip』は、前作に続き共同プロデューサーにD'Mile(HER、SILK SONIC)を迎え、Musiq Soulchild「Halfcrazy」をサンプリングしたメロウバラード「Over」、Lil Durkをフィーチャーした「NWA」他、 前作より更にパワーアップした全17曲を収録。

David Browns arc is without precedent. He was a Top 20 American Idol finisher at the age of 19. A few years later, he made himself known as a songwriter with a number two R&B/hip-hop chart hit, Ne-Yos "She Got Her Own." Not until a decade after that did he debut under his alias, but Lucky Daye fast became one of the hottest names in his genre, garnering six Grammy nominations, split appropriately enough across the traditional and progressive R&B categories, for Painted and Table for Two. Brown made that album and a follow-up duets EP in such close partnership with DMile -- a top-flight producer who has also worked with Ty Dolla $ign, H.E.R., and Silk Sonic -- that they could have been credited to Daye & DMile. The duo are as compatible as ever on Candydrip. A couple pre-album singles indicated that the LP would be special. In "Over," which sounds something like Babyface gone convincingly trap-soul, Brown is at his most impassioned, brimming with frustration albeit clear-headed enough to render wordplay like "Know youre a ten, but that attitude aint fine." Next was "Candy Drip," a prowling and trippy slow jam of temptation, in which Brown isnt content to fade into the background as the losing player in a love triangle. Those two songs are among the most intense moments on the indeed-exceptional Candydrip, an elaborate act of charmful persuasion for the most part. Brown flirts and pleas with evident desire to take a relationship to a higher level. His beloved cant be faulted for holding out when the indecision is rewarded with such delights. The first half is particularly dazzling, encompassing the blissful "God Body" (with a horn-splashed change in direction), the Prince-ly falsetto pop-funk of "Feels Like," the title track, and subtler ballads such as "Guess" and "Deserve." The album could have ended on an anguished note with "Used to Be," a heartstring-tugger produced by M-Phazes and Aidan Rodriguez, yet Brown crawls out with a trio of gems that include the radiant Philly soul-tinged "Cherry Forest" and unresolved "Ego," a soaring fusion of second-album N.E.R.D and (no, really) "Streetwalker"-era Jan Akkerman. ~ Andy Kellman