Released May 20, 2016
4.5 / 10
Favorites
Unrequited Love
Least favorites
Best Of Me, Your Love, All I Do
On "Chapters", Yuna is determined to squeeze out as much as possible from her own heartbreak, running loops without anyone pulling her back and advising other directions for the sake of a more creative outcome. The 13-track long 2016 LP holds as many as 4 tracks with the word "love" in their title and only 3 (Crush, Best Of Me and Time) don't mention it at one point or another! Despite the thematic repetition, we find that all this talk of loving relationships burgeoning and waning does not amount to much. Even though the album addresses intense emotions and dealing with them, its tracks unfold very controlled, carefully engineered and not at all victims of the same fervor described in the lyrics. Mannequin, the tempered intro to "Chapters", depicts feelings of numbness and losing your identity in a relationship. The topic and imagery have to potential to leave the listener wailing yet Yuna doesn't seem to be able to get out of her own head and emotions percolate from a faucet on the brink of close, drop by drop. Unrequited Love is another example of a muted display of grief. The musical atmosphere is built around an impression of listening underwater, a point at which I realize that's what a lot of the first tracks feel like: the ebb and flow of subdued sonics on a calm shore. The bulk of the album's appeal resides in the first half of the album, across the more R'n'B inclined tracks. Crush is just one of these collaborations that work well. A silky sound, a trivial subject matter, neat production, nice layering and Usher and Yuna's chemistry make for a solid output. The combination of the self-harmonization and the strings on Unrequited Love are also a winning formula. So is the Sade inspired Best Love and its breezy vocals on top of a cheeky instrumental - although this track feels too long as the synth motif keeps the song alive until it can't anymore. The last chorus by R'n'B rising star Jhené Aiko on Used To Love You signs off the more riveting part of "Chapters" and is perhaps where you should stop listening to the album if you don't have that much time on your hands. Too Close kicks off a messy leg, drawing more heavily from pop-infused sound. The ballad sounds like an Ella Henderson track that didn't make her debut album, sonically out of place after the five first tracks. Then comes Best Of Me, a ghastly take on electropop, in which Yuna tries to relinquish vocal control only to sound disoriented. If you're still here, brace yourself for the lyrically unimaginative Your Love, a stockpile of common tropes ("I've walked a thousand miles", "I've seen a million stars", "Nothing compares to your love"). The thumping synth on the chorus is the uninvited guest to this party. The taste level of the album is severely damaged at this point. Yuna and her collaborators have clearly run out of ideas for "Chapters" as All I Do makes a spectacle of the most predictable ballad out there. Even the bridge's change of pace and tone were expected. Put in a nutshell, "Chapters" would have been better off as a five track EP. Its value is greatly diluted in various directions Yuna had no business venturing in, falling short of compiling a worthwhile selection of tracks.
Favorite lyrics
"Can you breathe, breathe love into me? So I'll know what it's like"
Mannequin
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