By COOPER RATHMANN
Malcolm Todd is a pop and R&B star now starting to gain notoriety in the music industry. He is currently flooding the for you pages of many with his single “Chest Pain (I Love).” I bet many are humming the refrain and imagining the yellow guy from the game Repo singing as they read this. That is most likely the first song that first-time listeners are exposed to.
However, lots of his new fans may not be aware that on April 4, he released his first studio album self-titled “Malcolm Todd”. This release may connect to his mixtape “Sweet Boy” which was released on April 5, 2024.
As a Malcolm Todd fan, I have been anticipating a studio album release for quite some time now. However, I personally feel that “Sweet Boy” would qualify as his first large piece of work. What made this large-scale album successful was the boldness to try something not similar to his typical sound. Aeon Hernandez’28 reinforces that idea by saying “he has a sort of genre or vibe to his songs that he always does but on this, I felt like he was attempting to experiment a lot more! I definitely liked the parts where he added bits of experimental sound into songs like ‘I Do,’ ‘Good Job Malcolm,’ and at the end of ‘I’ll Come Back For You,’”
Even with the scattered collection of “incomplete-sounding” tracks and the ironically hilarious introduction track “Harry Styles,” the album itself is great at offering a unique storytelling aspect. There are moments of personal conflicts self and how other people throughout his life have offered their adversity and challenges. For instance, the introduction to “Concrete” starts with a woman ridiculing Malcolm for crying and how it is pathetic for a man like him to do that.
The thirty-seven-minute album is worth the time to listen to, even if that means listening to some bits and pieces of audio and dialogue. It is a true testament to personal resilience and many of the tracks’ instrumentation invokes a range of emotions from sadness to motivation. Tracks like “Bleed” and “Cheer Me On” let the listener experience a bit of main character energy, and perhaps these songs may become the soundtrack to one’s life. “Malcolm Todd” puts his career in the right direction, and another single is bound to elevate his place on the indie pop scene to new heights.
I give “Malcolm Todd” by Malcolm Todd a solid rating of 8/10. He met the expectations of his ever-growing fanbase with the well-composed tracks and left less to be desired than thought from a debut album. Although the “unfinished” tracks may diminish the rating, they should be seen more as an extension of his creative potential. Let’s be real, many great albums tend to include a storytelling element similar to Todd’s, thus critics cannot hold that against him in the grand scheme of things.
Here is my top five track ranking of “Malcolm Todd”.
Number one: “Bleed” (feat. Omar Apollo)
“Bleed” was released as its own single before the album release, and it was a good utilization of suspense-building. The track stands alone as the only feature, and Omar Apollo delivers a fantastic dual performance. It is perhaps the grooviest of tracks and it sounds like one of those songs that gets the feet tapping and the body swaying. Additionally, the transition from Todd to Apollo in the second verse flows beautifully into his voice which relies more on the melody instead of instrumentation.
Number two: “Make Me a Better Man”
This track is more likely to hit for those in the post-breakup era and its high-energy refrain takes it all home. The instrumentation on the track is perfect for the mood it is trying to convey. The piano throughout its entirety gives a classical sound, similar to a modernized jazz ballad.
Number three: “Who’s the Fool”
It’s electric as all hell yet it works! “Who’s the Fool” is the track that makes you want to blast your eardrums out at full volume. The track describes the story of Christopher, a character who seems to be troubled in his social interactions yet he is never explained in detail. The end of the track crescendos into a lighter end with some whistling sounds, which is a very unique way to fuse different sounds with the strong guitar.
Number four: “Cheer Me On”
“Cheer Me On” was another track released as a single a week before the album was released. This track is more related to his own story but has an overarching theme of striving for success and happiness. What caught my attention the most was his lamentation of wanting to be adored, even if that means getting emotionally broken in the process. This idea is best displayed when he sings “I’m looking all around, forgetting why I came, I’m living for your eyes, you need to know my name”
Number five: “Lying”
I love the bassline on the track and is a strong second place in creating a relaxing, groovy vibe. This is one of the best songs for aimless driving and just being outdoors. While the end drags on too long with the repetition of “I’m lying”, there is a perfectly timed transition to the subsequent track “Walk to Class.”
Featured Image: Malcom Todd album cover; Spotify
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