Album Review: SYRE - Jaden Smith

Score: ** (2/5)

He may be the son of the Fresh Prince but his sound is far from royal.

Jaden Smith’s much-awaited debut album, ‘SYRE’, is an unenthusiastic, over-ambitious, murky mix of rap songs that are way too long to enjoy. Albeit creatively daring to produce a 17-track journey of self-discovery, I am left wanting a lot more from a lot less.

Set in the mind of a polarising, Twitter-abusing teenager, this album is clearly a product of its time. Clocking in at 70-minutes long, he touches on themes of love, paranoia, religion and politics but I felt more exhausted than inspired by the time it reached an end.

The former karate-kid, has dabbled in all sectors of the entertainment world, following in the footsteps of his father but to me, his music career is a step too far. Despite the album being heavily influenced by legends of rap, Kanye West and Frank Ocean, Smith falls short of their musical flair.

The evolutionary opening, ‘B’- ‘L’- ‘U’- ‘E’, that sees one song split into four seamlessly-blended tracks is the albums only saving grace. In ‘B’, Smith’s sister and fellow musician, Willow, recites a sermon about the creation of man. Where once she ‘whipped her hair back and forth’ in childish rage, Willow allows the enchanting words to angelically glide from her lips.

An auto-tuned remix and the crash of drums transition to the next track as we hear the development of Smith’s weak, monotone rap skills. He makes a mockery of himself in ‘U’ with lyrics such as “Man I’m artichokin’… I can’t breathe, that’s the art of chokin’”, distracting from any sense of seriousness or sincerity in his message.

For the most part, the production and instrumentals are an element to be praised, with the sound of police car sirens, horror movie screams and wind chimes, yes - wind chimes in a rap album, adding a theatrical vibe throughout.

Smith switches up his sound with ‘Breakfast,’ one of the two features on the album. We hear A$AP Rocky’s talent fail to reach its full potential as he plays the part of an ominous, deep voice in the background, adding nothing to the anodyne tune. As the song comes to an end, Smith says “So, you think you can save rap music?”, arrogantly suggesting that the genre needs reviving.

In the next track ‘Hope,’ he appears to answer his question in the opening line “Baby girl, I just hope.” Coming from a newbie to the music industry, this is a rather bold statement but adds to Smith’s bravado - foreshadowing his later claim of being a so-called ‘Icon’.

After immersing myself in Smith’s world, it is clear that he had an image in mind with ‘SYRE’. Yet amongst the patchwork of genres and overzealous rambling, for me, his vision is far from 20/20.