Little Simz -- Sometimes I Might Be Introvert: Review

Little Simz -- Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

[Age 101 Music]

The ultimate danger of making an album with any sort of concept or cohesive narrative is the inevitability that someone will always be disappointed. As an artist, accepting an inevitable amount of rejection is necessary to make any statement without overthinking it and bailing at the last moment before even showing it to anyone. I’m sure Little Simz had some jitters leading up to the release of her fourth studio record, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, considering how personal this album gets. Not only does Simz meditate on some of her most sensitive insecurities, but the record’s ambitious concept is also vulnerable in how she indulges in her most guilty musical fantasies.

Sometimes is Simbi’s fantastical journey inward, previewing freakouts and heartbreaks and royal affirmations all inside her mind, trying to keep herself together and not suffocate under the pressure she ultimately self-inflicts. Simz structures her songs like journal entry epics, like in the opener “Introvert”, a symphonic 6-minute cavalcade that sets the stage for the theatrics that make up this album’s meat. Her determined calls of “We’ve already won!” place her as this world’s protagonist, sword in hand charging at Mount Olympus with an intent of self-affirmation and actualization.

The album sounds like a fruit basket of Simz’s favorite influences--galactic string hits, glossy R&B jams, afrobeat throwback, and more soul than a sock with a hole. And while we’re on soul, I think this album does do it justice, but doesn’t do enough to really expand beyond the trodden ground of “modern conscious rap.” By track #10 of soul beats with self-critical poetry, I’m a little desensitized to it and it takes a lil more space than it needs to make its point. That being said, the best soul tracks shine bright, especially “I Love You, I Hate You” which contains the best genre fusions of Sometimes and channels it in the best daddy-issues track of 2021. Seriously, few songs here make the same impact as this one does, make sure to check this one.

When Simz breaks from the formula, it makes for the most fun moments of Sometimes. “Point And Kill” features Nigerian-British singer Obonjayar who paired with Simbi makes for the coolest bump on this album. This song is guided by this persistent afrofunk beat that just grabs you by the hips and demands you to move. The following track “Fear No Man” pairs Nigerian percussion with this chaotic rhythm that carries the vibrances of a dance circle, with its frilly dresses and dusty feet represented in the song’s gallery of vocals.

Dotted with interludes and centered within Simbi, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is clearly for no one else but her, feeling more like an exercise in self-care than album at some points, sometimes to a fault. At its peaks it promises some of the most colorful rap tracks of the year and in its lulls, it delivers robust soul rap that does little more than show up to do the job. In a way, its inconsistency is what makes it so true to Simz’s goal to make an album completely about her. It twists, turns, and meandering mirrors the exact introspection the album is about. It makes me wonder, that Sometimes is not an album; it is an anxious, depressive spiral on a gloomy afternoon and Simz’s daily struggles to claw her way out, sword in hand, hand on heart, heart in music, body and soul. [Ben Nguyen O’Connor]

7.7/10.