How Do You Sleep At Night? by Teezo Touchdown | Album Review

Music’s latest provocateur delivers his debut studio album

Listen to How Did You Sleep At Night: Apple Music | Spotify

The 2020s have seen a fair share of rappers shift away from their roots. Earlier this year we saw the likes of Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert explore psych rock and heavy metal respectively. Drake turned heads last year with his Baltimore club, house music project that was Honestly, Nevermind. Subverting expectations and delivering something might be considered new for rappers like those mentioned, however, that’s the norm for somebody like Teezo Touchdown. His slew of singles he’s dropped since his career started blurs the line between rap, rock, R&B, and much more.

Despite his involvement in rap, and some notable cosigns from Tyler, The Creator and Travis Scott. I wouldn’t even consider Teezo a rapper. He’s an amalgamation of so many different styles that it’s hard to just box him into one secular genre. On his debut album, How Do You Sleep At Night?, Teezo embraces his ambitious and off-kilter nature and expands on his already unique style. The end result is an album that will surprise you with its production and vocal harmonies but isn’t enough to fully justify the overall hype surrounding Teezo

Soundwise How Do You Sleep At Night leans heavily towards rock/alt-rock, with a few flourishes of some old-school disco and R&B thrown into the mix. Teezo trades a lot of his earlier experimentation away and focuses solely on this type of production for its entire duration. Coining it as “Rock & Boom” (His words not mine.).

Teezo does a solid job emulating these genres, album opener “OK” is very reminiscent of a lot of pop rock from the decade’s past, while “Impossible” revels in its post-punky bassline that gave me a ton of Metric/Interpol vibes. some of the album’s best moments occur when Teezo takes it back to with a handful of retro-influenced tracks. Songs like “Mood Swings” evoke twinkling mirror balls and bell bottoms of the ‘70’s. “Sweet” is a sultry track whose rhythm could fit perfectly with the 90’s swing of something like The Fugees.

Stylistically, however, How Do You Sleep At Night left me yearning for more. The album doesn’t really branch off as much as I expected it to, and while I did enjoy the overall production, I couldn’t help but feel there was something big missing here. Like the chance to be a little more zanier with the song choices. Perhaps this was intentional to appeal to a wider mainstream audience, if so then it was a missed opportunity for Teezo to show off his eclecticism that brought him a ton of attention in the first place.

Vocally though, Teezo sounds incredible on his debut album and shows off his range quite well on here. His warbly inflections on the chorus of “Familiarity” add to the song’s mellow and summery tone. He applies a staccato flow in his verse on “You Thought”, matching his tempo with the track’s bass and guitars. Often times he can come off a bit goofy, like in the back half of “Nu Nay” where he does his best Rick James impression on the harmonies.

Lyrically, the album is yet another hit or miss for me. At its best, it features a few raw, emotional moments but at its worst, Teezo is saying a whole lot of nothing. At its peak, we get genuine glimpses of his personal conflicts such as the familial constraints in “Daddy Mama Drama”. Highlighting the distance he has with them: (They say, “Pickin’ up the phone shouldn’t feel like work or a game of “Who gon’ call who first?”). Teezo spreads words of encouragement on “Impossible”, an ode to the oddballs like himself that want to pursue their passions despite the world telling them not to. “Too Easy” shows off a little bit of Teezo’s unsuccessful love life with some cheeky wordplay (“We not even serious, my DMs are hit-or-miss. Half I’ll hit and half I’ll miss.”).

More often than not, How Do You Sleep At Night features some questionable songwriting that had me debating if I was listening to a parody album. Despite the slick groove and vocal performance of “UUHH”, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud throughout the lazily written chorus: (“First I’m gonna “Uh”, then I’m gonna, “Uh-uh, uh-uh”, and that’s gon’ make you “Uh-uh-uh”). The album closer “The Original Was Better” is a weird country/EDM mash-up where Teezo compares his life to a movie apparently? It sounded more like he was coming up with words to just match the vibe rather than write something more meaningful. The same can be said for other tracks such as “Nu Nay” or “OK”. The production is great but lyrically, it feels very empty.

Overall though, Teezo Touchdown introduces us to his unconventional style and sound fairly decently on his debut album How Do You Sleep At Night. At its highest moments, listeners will be treated to some great alt-rock/R&B with excellent vocal performances that will surely spark some bits of nostalgia. At its lowest, however, it lacks the real “oomph” that Teezo anticipated to deliver with a handful of strange songwriting that had me questioning the overall appeal and unanimous hype surrounding the artist.

I’m feeling a solid 6–6.5/10 on Teezo’s debut album. To be fair, it’s probably one of the better albums I’ve heard in the last few months and I have some hope the project will grow on me (even the unsavoury parts) but truthfully I was expecting a whole lot more from Teezo. It’s a decent start but there’s still some room for improvement.

Final Rating: 6–6.5/10

Favourite Tracks: You Thought? Sweet, Impossible, Mood Swings, Familiarity, Daddy Mama Drama.