PARTYMOBILE

PARTYNEXTDOOR’s PARTYMOBILE comes to fans a whopping four years after his last full-length, PARTYNEXTDOOR 3 (P3). While it breaks the naming convention of the previous three, little else has changed in the world of the man credited with ushering in a new era of moody and straight-talk-dependent R&B. Party is here who Party was then—a masterful songwriter and under-regarded vocalist. He would rather tell a lover the truth about his feelings—or, in many cases, the absence of—than string them along.

Solemnity is something of a default for the singer, his curtness meeting its apex on songs like “SHOWING YOU” (“You’re still here for me/Even though I broke your heart a million times”) and “SAVAGE ANTHEM,” where he sings, “Don’t hold your breath/Don’t wait on my love.” OVO head honcho Drake pops up on “LOYAL” (as well as its remix, also featuring Bad Bunny), and yet the project’s most radio-friendly moment comes in the form of the Rihanna collaboration “BELIEVE IT,” where even in trying to atone for his misdeeds Party sings, “Hey, either believe me or you don’t.”