{"id":8310,"date":"2024-06-16T10:17:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T15:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=8310"},"modified":"2025-07-23T20:58:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T01:58:39","slug":"album-review-kaytranada-timeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/album-review-kaytranada-timeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: KAYTRANADA &#8211; TIMELESS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The time has finally come!! For the past 8 years or so, I have been talking about Kaytranada and praising him for his work, whether it was being my #1 album of 2016 with <em>99.9%<\/em>, making another splash with <em>Bubba<\/em> during the end of 2019 (and winning Grammys for it),or even producing full projects with rappers like IDK &amp; Amine. But now, I actually get to talk about some new solo work of his, that being his third studio album (and 2nd on RCA)<em> Timeless.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Like most producer-fronted projects, I was curious about the features he was going to have on here, although it doesn&#8217;t seem out of the ordinary when they include the likes of Don Toliver, Charlotte Day Wilson, Dawn Richard, Tinashe, Anderson. Paak, SiR, and Thundercat, among others. You&#8217;ll get names you either know or not that familiar with.<\/p>\n<p>So&#8230;. is this album\u00a0<em>timeless<\/em> as the name implies, or is it very dated?<\/p>\n<p>Well, from the overall sound, I see that he&#8217;s still leaning heavily into R&amp;B, dancehall and electronic vibes with some hip-hop tinges in there, like what was previously on\u00a0<em>Bubba<\/em>.\u00a0 The whole album just has that nightclub\/summer vibe going on, and it sounds great! The opening track &#8220;Pressure&#8221; has a bombastic beat behind it with samples from Redman&#8217;s &#8220;Let&#8217;s Get Dirty&#8221; and a 1975 track from Thelma Houston, &#8220;Pressure Cooker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Spit It Out&#8221; with Rochelle Jordan has these smooth and sexy vocals coming from her along with the snaps and claps of the beat. &#8220;Call U Up&#8221; with Lou Phelps, one half of hip hop duo The Celestics (the other being Kay, Lou is his younger brother), has a dancey, funky vibe for it, almost like nu-disco but with more flavor in there. The same can be said for &#8220;Weird&#8221; with Durand Bernarr, and the joint just makes you want to dance in a nightclub, just like &#8220;Dance Dance Dance Dance,&#8221;\u00a0 the second instrumental joint on the record.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dock9j9e9tw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This right here is the pretty boy swag<br \/>\nMy niggas pretty too, got pretty boy mags<br \/>\nAnd pretty boy gaps, that pretty boy status<br \/>\nThat Z too fly, I don&#8217;t even need a stylist (Nah)<br \/>\nMoving something like a gyalis<br \/>\nI get what I want, know I got you niggas jealous (Jealous)<br \/>\nShe wants to caress my tats<br \/>\nI let her talk back, got pornstar stats (Yeah)<br \/>\nAlways end up on top like it&#8217;s missionary<br \/>\nBeat the pussy up, put it in the cemetery (Yeah)<br \/>\nYou not used to a nigga like me<br \/>\nYou like white boys rocking Abercrombie (Oh)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I admit, hearing Don Toliver on the track &#8220;Feel A Way&#8221; did make me feel something on here, and he sounds good on this beat with the warbly bass going there.<\/p>\n<p>I will say some tracks do have that samey dancehall\/afro-beat type production like on &#8220;Still,&#8221; &#8220;Video,&#8221; &#8220;Hold On,&#8221; and &#8220;Seemingly.&#8221; That&#8217;s not to say the tracks are awful, far from it, but they don&#8217;t feel dynamic or interesting enough to be favorites.\u00a0 Hell, the vocals from the featured artists were fine as well, but the tracks did feel interchangeable in a way and while they maybe could be thrown on as background noise, that&#8217;s really it. However, &#8220;Drip Sweat&#8221; with Channel Tres is the opposite of what I just said; this joint is phenomenal, dynamic, has a badass beat breakdown and amazing production at that. I will say that the song does sound like I heard it on an ad before although I wouldn&#8217;t attest to that.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Man&#8217;s got me\u2005fucked up<br \/>\nLet&#8217;s keep my head up<br \/>\nYou\u2005hold your hands up<br \/>\nThey might not shoot y&#8217;all (Shoot y&#8217;all)<br \/>\nAll of this hoopla<br \/>\nBecause of the internet<br \/>\nIf it&#8217;s &#8217;bout bullshit (Bullshit)<br \/>\nThey using my interest<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FlObYZu9L5A?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Please Babe&#8221; and &#8220;Stepped On&#8221; has a lot more going for it, especially the latter with Kaytranada providing vocals for it, but then in comes the double punch of &#8220;Do 2 Me&#8221; (with Anderson. Paak and SiR) and &#8220;Witchy&#8221; (with Childish Gambino). You have Paak&#8217;s effortless swagger that might seem corny but it&#8217;s better whenever he does it, and while SiR only does the last verse, he closed it well. Then there&#8217;s the funny thing about &#8220;Witchy&#8221;: the song was teased in 2022 during a DJ set, and now we get the real thing. Childish Gambino&#8217;s performance is superb, and it is a banger for sure. Rochelle Jordan makes another appearance on here with the final track and single of the album, &#8220;Lover\/Friend,&#8221; and once again, this was a fine track. Her vocals are great, the beat sounds hypnotic, and probably an OK way to end off the album&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; except it&#8217;s not.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, there&#8217;s like 4 more tracks to go, and it&#8217;s on a 2nd disc.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Wasted Words&#8221; with Thundercat has to be one of the dumbest tracks on the album, and yet this is like my top 5 favorite songs on there. It&#8217;s short and it&#8217;s all about him talking shit to somebody, but it&#8217;s hilarious to hear. It sounds exactly like something I would hear on a Thundercat record, which makes me hope he has an album in the works.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Oh, you got the strap?<br \/>\nOh, word? (Nigga, nigga, nigga)<br \/>\nWho gives a fuck? (Nigga, nigga, nigga)<br \/>\nMr. Know-it-all (Mr. Know-it-all, know-it-all)<br \/>\nNo one gives a fuck what you talkin&#8217; \u2018bout (Nigga, nigga, nigga)<br \/>\nSo just shut your mouth<br \/>\nYou filthy whore<br \/>\nAll these wasted words<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QEWPgQIw78Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s me giving a piece of those lyrics. It&#8217;s a short track of 87-90 seconds, aka the normal length of an anime opening\/ending. &#8220;Snap My Fingers&#8221; with PinkPantheress sounds amazing from her magnificent vocals to the hypnotic beat. The other Channel Tres&#8217; contribution, &#8220;Stuntin&#8217;,&#8221; does have a slower buildup than &#8220;Drip Sweat,&#8221; but it does bang and the <em>actual<\/em> closer is &#8220;Out of Luck&#8221; with Mariah The Scientist, which has some minor changes from the version on her album <em>To Be Eaten Alive, <\/em>and yeah Mariah&#8217;s vocals were perfect on this.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, this album does display Kaytranada&#8217;s best elements of dance music: funky, vibe-heavy, energetic, groovy, sensual and hitting the beats so right. However, sometimes the production here can sound a bit too familiar or not as dynamic as previous albums. I know I&#8217;m not going to expect another <em>99.9%\u00a0<\/em>out of him but even if I found this and\u00a0<em>BUBBA<\/em> to not reach the favorability I had with the debut album, I still have something to like at the end of the day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><em><strong>FINAL VERDICT:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">BUY IT.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><em>Timeless or not, this joint hit at the right TIME.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>TIMELESS<\/strong><\/em><strong> is on KAYTRANADA,LLC\/RCA Records and is available on Vinyl, digital download and streaming services.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/homLqm-W2Ro?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The time has finally come!! For the past 8 years or so, I have been talking about Kaytranada and praising him for his \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/album-review-kaytranada-timeless\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"yes","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"MusicRecording","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[1066,631,1240,293,503,1641,1790,1789],"class_list":["post-8310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-album","tag-album-review","tag-dance","tag-electronic","tag-hip-hop","tag-kaytranada","tag-rca-records","tag-timeless"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/https___images.genius.com_53d0e502c65226781b72d2f3d0cd0ce6.1000x1000x1.png?fit=788%2C788&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-2a2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8310"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8547,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8310\/revisions\/8547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}