Bryson was not lying when he said “Years Go By“. Four years after the release of “Anniversary“, he has released his self-titled album, which he hinted at being his last studio album.
“I would love for this one to be the last one for a while,” Tiller told Complex. “This is probably gonna be my last one for a minute. I just want to take a hiatus because my No. 1 passion is video games.”
Bryson has been around since 2014, so it would make sense for him to want to take a step back and finally enjoy the fruits of his labor. Selfishly, I would still want to see one of my favorite artists of all time continue his musical journey, but from a human standpoint you have to empathize with his situation.
In some of his other interviews, he’s talked about how he’s had enough of telling his daughters that he “has to go work”. He’s felt like he’s missed a lot of time with them, and you can hear it in his music. The theme of time, or lost time, has been very prevalent in anything he’s released since “Anniversary”.
Tracks like, “Timeless Interlude” where he talks about how his life has flashed by him ever since he entered the music industry and “Outta Time” where he talks about waiting so long for a girl to change her ways.
Now at 31, Tiller wanted to make sure he was present more than ever on his album. Making it a self-titled project, and putting himself on the cover.
“It’s all about visibility and awareness and I want everybody to know who I am,” Tiller told Complex. “My No. 1 goal with this album is just for everybody on Earth to hear it one time.”
Well there’s no way I’d be writing this review if I didn’t at least hear the album, and there were definitely songs on here that I can’t wait to talk about, so let’s get to it.
“THE YSN REVIEW”
- Find My Way
- Random Access Memory (RAM) ft. Clara La San
- Ciao!
- CALYPSO
- Attention
- Peace Interlude
- Prize
- Persuasion ft. Victoria Monét
- Rich Boy
- No Thank You
- Undertow
- Stay Gold
- Outside
- Whatever She Wants
- F4U
- ÆON L U S T
- Waterfalls
- Assume The Position
Something that Bryson has talked about for a while now, is the fact that he was not happy at all when he made his most commercially successful album, “True to Self”.
“I was in a blur but I see things clear now”
Despite the irony with the title, it seems on this project he was able to just be himself throughout all the music. He’s always talked about not wanting be put in the “Trapsoul” box that he himself created with his first album, because it then makes fans not see him for anything else.
And the truth of the matter is, that he’s a super talented artist that also rap at a very high level. Which is shown with the flow and wordplay in songs like “Persuasion” and “Ciao!”.
Whether he sells 100k or 10k first week, it’s really refreshing to hear him talk about his music with a sense of pride. He wanted to showcase his talents while being carefree about the naysayers and you could feel it with every track.
You can even hear him sort of thanking his fans for sticking beside him through all this trials and tribulations as an artist in “Peace Interlude”.
I really do want to talk about one of my favorite tracks on this album, “Random Access Memory (RAM)”.
When you take a look at the album cover you see kind of a futuristic looking Bryson Tiller, which he alluded to in some of his album promo videos.
RAM in a computer is the short-term memory where the data is stored in order for a computer to run programs and open files. Even the opening line of “storage full, reminds me I took too many pictures with you” are an exact representation of the song title.
He’s dealing with his breakup, but putting it in terms with a computer. His second verse is honestly some of the best wordplay and rapping he’s ever done. I’ll break it down line by line.
“Don’t know myself, can’t function with this malware” = doesn’t know who he is after a breakup and the malware (bad virus in a computer) is the heartbreak that he is experiencing
“I’m at functions by myself, my friends just left out of here” = He’s talking about being at parties by himself in sorrow, but also functions within a computer
“Said, “Call if you need help,” think I need Captcha. ‘Causе I can’t tell the differеnce between me and these computers.” = Captcha, is the program used to determine whether a user is a robot or a human being when making a transaction or logging into an account. The link to him is that he feels like he’s working so much that he feels like a robot in his own life.
“Spent all of my cache here, I’m out of my mind. Spent all of my time drinkin’ tonight” = The “cache” & “cash” double entendre. Cache is basically something that temporarily stores data in a computer system.
“Hopin’ that you might come out and find me. I need access, remind me” = He’s calling out to his ex that he wants them to come out and find him, but then he goes back to the title of the track (Random Access Memory) saying that he wants to be with them right now and he needs a reminder of how their love once felt.
One of my favorite tracks that he’s ever done and I’m sure it’s going to be in my top 10 of the year come December.
Four years was definitely a very long time, but it didn’t even feel like it. He was putting out music with “Tiller Tuesdays” & some other SoundCloud hits like “One Sided”, which made the wait easier. I somehow get the feeling that there will be another album review coming soon for another artist that made us wait four years for his album too.
This just goes to show you how fast four years can go by (see beginning of article for the same pun). I mean, I started this website almost five years ago and I still remember hitting publish on my first ever article.
Throughout the journey there have been a lot of changes, but one constant has always remained. My love for music and my excitement to be able to share my thoughts about it on this website. That will always remain, no matter how many years go by.
This is YSN, until next time, signing out.
Official “YSN” Score: 8.8/10
