SYRE is as Bad as it is Brilliant

Part 2 of a two-part series covering Jaden Smith and his most recent album, SYRE. Part 2 is a track-by-track analysis of SYRE. Link to Part 1.

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Overall, it’s a mixed bag, but Jaden shows flashes and I’d like to give praise to those tracks as much as I harp away with criticism on others. To bring some order to the chaos, We’re going to separate all the songs from the album into three distinct categories.

The Good. The Bad. And.. no, not the ugly… The Brilliant.

We’ll keep each group of songs housed in their respective categories, except the prolonged 4 track intro, which I’ll analyze first, as collectively, it’s both bad and brilliant, at times, even interchangeably so. Let’s begin.

The Intro

Tracks 1–4: “B”, “L”, “U”, “E”

SYRE begins with a lengthy catharsis chronicling Jaden’s heartbreak from a split with presumed first love, Sarah Snyder. Snyder had a meteoric rise in popularity over the course of their relationship — she left with prominent fashion gigs and one-on-one time with Leonardo Dicaprio. When Jaden laments of lost love, which he does often in SYRE, my assumption is that the source is Sarah, 3 years his elder, who left quite a mark on the impressionable teenager.

For me, “B” equates to Brilliant. It opens with an angelic lullaby that alternates vocals between his critically-acclaimed sister Willow, and young popstar, Pia Mia. At a casual listen, you might totally miss the fact that this is sung by two different voices. The purpose is to set a stage, which through iambic pentameter, Syre’s story begins. It’s a very powerful start, segueing into thunderous, crisp distortion as the curtain rises and the protagonist is struck with spotlight. “Well lately baby, I don’t give a fuck,” are the first words from Syre and the declaration resounds with force. He’s wounded, but not enough so that ambition is lost, more so, the opposite. With the confidence suspended under a microscope, we get traces of vulnerability as Jaden professes his love and rues the relationship’s inevitable end. This is a booming start to the album. I was very impressed. So impressed, that I’ll even overlook Jaden’s use of the lyric-which-must-not-be-named (“swaggy”) that the Dark Lord of Pop (Justin Bieber) brought into teenage vernacular, and thus, Syre uses to describe his flow. So “B” is Brilliant. 99% so.

“L” is mostly Bad with a hint of Brilliance. We begin in a bit of dangerous territory, continuing where “B” left off but with more monotone, Cudi-contrived moaning in which Jaden compares his state of sadness to the blue of the ocean and pleads that his lover catch a wave and wallow with. Quickly, the boasting returns, and by the first verse, we’ve reached a God complex. In “L”, Jaden claims he should be in the Senate, start his own school, and compares himself to Martin Luther, MLK, and Kendrick Lamar. This happens over the course of about 10 seconds. If you can make it this far, the hint of brilliance comes as he tumbles headfirst into an apologetic confession, tangibly contrite as he addresses his mother and father. “Sorry mama I’m a mess up / Sorry mama I’m the mess-up / I just use these 808’s to do confessions / I’m double cursing and I’m flexing.” This part of the verse deserves to be highlighted. In addition to employing a dope cadence with a sharp use of repetition, Jaden is raw, illustrating the relatable dilemma of wanting to please your parents, but also, be your authentic self.

“U” is mostly Bad, held up by Lido’s stellar production. In fact, the intro to “U” is actually a sample of his own track, “Falling Down”, which came out in 2016. It’s a grand use of the synthesizer, pairing well with lyrics that describe the futility of keeping a relationship past salvage held together, like grains of sand slipping away as Smith reaches his metaphorical ocean. The rest of “U” is a rambling mess of bad wordplay, more self-flattery (this time Jimi Hendrix comparisons) and frankly, too much of what we’ve already heard and know about how Jaden’s feeling. There are complex orchestral arrangements, but the instrumental build-ups lead to lyrical breakdowns that leave us more amused than impressed. There’s also unnecessary mnemonic repetition. “Never forever, the moments that hold us together” is a great line but he doesn’t need to repeat it five times for us to get it. At this point, we’re just ready for the track to end.

“E” is good. The sound transports us to a Calabasas western themed fashion-show, complete with Versace-styled rattlesnakes as MSFTs’ Harry Hudson sings, “And if I fall for you, there’s gon’ be trouble.” The slow-tempo sets the table for relaxed lyrics, which we get, but in reality, the verses are just soliloquies of nothing. There are moments — “if a heart is never broken where the hell the fun in it” and “I’m just a bishop, had a problem listening to father figures”, but for the most part, we’re ready for this to wrap up. Coming full circle, Jaden raps the lyrics that Willow & Pia Mia sing at the start of “B”, as “E” fades into a magnificent, dream-like state which he only returns to once more (at the end of “Falcon”) before we hear it in its grand entirety in SYRE’s final namesake track.

So “B” was Brilliant. “L” was Bad. “U” was Bad. And “E” was Good.

These cuts are also good.

The Good

Track 5: “Breakfast” (feat. ASAP Rocky)

• This bumps for sure. An ASAP Rocky feature without an ASAP Rocky verse is disappointing, but I do like what we get for an alternative, which is the stoned, rambling Vito Corleone persona he takes on in the break between Jaden’s first verse and the final breakdown, sounding quite ASAP influenced itself.

Track 8: “Ninety”

• This is a bit of guilty pleasure. The beat is retro and sounds like a flirty jam that Stranger Things Season 1 Steve would add to a mix for Nancy. The keyboard is buoyant and retro until the track transitions into a warbling bridge, a lá Kid Cudi, as Jaden sings, “I’m rooollllllin” over and over. “Ninety” then gathers rock roots as the electric guitar picks up and Jaden bemoans the hypotheticals of his past relationship before moving into a bit of spoken word which loosely connects the album from start to finish. As “Ninety” progresses, we make a transition from a song Season 1 Steve would play to a song fit for the Steve of Season 2. I guess that kinda thing is possible with a track 8 minutes long.

Track 10: “Batman”

Is this really the first rap song to ever take advantage of the dopeness that is the “batman, batman, batman” cadence? What a missed opportunity. I’m very surprised we never got that from Migos considering they were able to create an anthem just by saying “Hannah Montana” as much as possible in 3 minutes. Like the Migos track, I don’t think there’s much point to Jaden’s “Batman” — it’s just cool. Fun fact, he wore the suit to Kanye & Kim’s wedding in 2014. I can’t decide whether Kanye would have loved this, dapping up Jaden for pushing weird fashion forward or hated it for stealing attention away from his own custom-made Givenchy suit. Either way, it’s probably one of the only ways you can upstage Kanye at his own wedding.

Track 14: “The Passion”

• “The Passion” announces itself with guns blazing, a derivative of Jaden’s hit track “Icon”. The energy is electric, specifically the background hype supplied by the same artist who takes the lead. Most bars are accentuated with a “Yuh” at the end, a stamp of authority fitting Jaden’s newly-matured voice well. In Verse 2, he’s got us live, singing along as he makes reference to Will, calling himself a “skinny Young Jiggy in the city”.

Track 15: “George Jeff”

• The wordplay is on point here: “Yeah my name is George Jefferson / the male Maleficent / You don’t know who you’re messin’ with / I ran for president / Cause our country’s in a deficit / My only testament / is that we keep it so surreal / I kill myself to resurrect, woo!”

The Bad

Track 6: “Hope”

• This song is like all of Jaden’s nonsensical tweets combined into one. One moment, he’s hoping for a better world, the next he’s complaining about “hella ratchets” in Calabasas. The chorus is boring and the song lacks any direction whatsoever. Oh look! Now he’s moved on to conspiracy theories about 9/11— “Building 7 wasn’t hit and there’s more shit to come / The pentagon is on a run.” Next song, please.

Track 9: “Lost Boy”

• I touched on this in Part 1. The problem is that he put a 9.5 minute shoutout track halfway through the album and imitates Kanye, although I actually do like his decision to go acoustic. You can see why Raury and Jaden Smith are making music together. I hope he continues to experiment with these sounds in the future.

Track 12: “Watch Me”

• A song that will probably play on a TNT highlight track during an NBA commercial break, this is bland and unoriginal.

Track 16: “Rapper”

• The worst song in the rap-heavy latter half of the album. If Future is Purple Drank, this is Grape Juice.

The Brilliant

Track 7: “Falcon” (feat. Raury)

• If Jaden is Batman, he needs a Robin, but Raury is much too talented to play the role of sidekick. For a more accurate comparison and to tie into the Bay Area bubble I call home, if Jaden is a start-up, Raury is his accelerator. 2 years older, Raury has been able to comfortably navigate his sound, weaving in social commentary with experimentation. Jaden’s issue is that he tries too hard to be different. As a result, his experimentation does not come off as a natural exploration of sound, but as forced attempts, like an amateur dart player aiming for bullseye. On “Falcon”, Jaden’s brash hook — “There’s cops on the road, fuck em”, leads to a quintessentially-Raury bridge, making sense of the obscenity when he sings, “I am not afraid to walk the lonely road / I’m so curious of where it goes / Who really cares? We won’t be there / When kingdom comes, it all falls down.” Raury is the perfect Yin to Jaden’s Yang, like a voice for his internal monologue when he’s struggling to articulate the thoughts. By the end of the track, we’re following a high-speed chase as the two work in-tandem to start a revolution.

Track 11: “Icon”

• When an album crosses the threshold of 100 million listens, the hit song’s reach has spread far and wide. Jaden, self-proclaimed “Icon Living”, had the MVP of Rap retweeting, the MVP of the NBA bopping, and his father straight-up imitating, on a track that is part war-cry, part turn-up anthem, and mostly, a celebration of MSFTS achievements. Jaden shouts-out magazine covers and 2 of the 3 most talented in his crew — indie filmmaker Moises Arias (who, lol, you may remember as Rico from Hannah Montana) and Harry Hudson (the pop-influenced singer-songwriter heartthrob who stereotypically, isn’t that great of a singer or songwriter). Missing, is Teo, the older brother of Moses, who is arguably, the most unique and talented. He’s got one song on Spotify — a Spanish-guitar fusion featuring some suavemente vocals. If anything, “Icon” will get your heart rate up. Play it for a mood-change, confidence boost, or right before you tackle a challenge.

Track 13: “Fallen”

• I gave “Fallen” brilliant status because I think it’s the most versatile, well-rounded track on SYRE. It picks up in the midst of a new relationship, at a time where Jaden feels love for someone new while he’s recovering from someone old. It’s an odd state of limbo, but the sonic aesthetic matches. It’s a lethargic love song with lyrics that are wide awake. A monotone Jaden waxes poetic with lines like, “Baby, you are so unusual like cuttin’ cuticles / but that is just what makes you beautiful like watchin’ tulips grow / When you walk it’s just slow motion baby, why you movin’ slow? / And when you talk, I got my lasers on you like a UFO.” He’s rapping sonnets for his new lady, but when we get to the hook we hear a wounded lost soul as he sings, “Hide me from the blue / I’m dying on the moon, and I just needed you.” Oscillating between crooned hooks and verses rapped in drum machine packaging, I highly recommend that you give “Fallen” a listen.

Track 17: “SYRE”

• The namesake track encompasses the entire message SYRE attempts to explain. It’s just Jaden talking over dreamy Nickelodeon reveries as he wakes up in a rainforest trying to interpret the meaning of his future and the solace of his loneliness. It commands your entire presence.