Wasteland (2022)

Wasteland (stylized in all caps) is the sophomore studio album by American R&B singer Brent Faiyaz, released on July 8, 2022, through Lost Kids, Venice Music, and Stem Disintermedia. The album features guest appearances from Alicia Keys, DJ Dahi, Drake, Joony, Tre Amani, and Tyler, the Creator, while the album's production was primarily handled by Faiyaz himself and Jordan Ware, with assistance from Beat Butcha, Che Pope, DJ Dahi, Jake One, No I.D., Paperboy Fabe, Raphael Saadiq, The Neptunes, and the album's executive producer, Jonathan "Freeze" Wells. The album serves as a follow-up to the EP Fuck the World (2020).

Wasteland received "generally favorable" reviews from music critics who praised the album's "smooth" production and Faiyaz's vocals. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, in which it earned 88,000 album-equivalent units, of which 6,000 were pure album sales while nine out of the seventeen album tracks debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album was supported by four official singles: "Dead Man Walking", "Gravity" with DJ Dahi featuring Tyler, the Creator, "Wasting Time" featuring Drake, and "Price of Fame".

Background and recording

Upon the album's release, Faiyaz appeared in an interview with Rolling Stone, during which he was asked about the album's recording process and its composition. Faiyaz revealed that originally, the album was supposed to only be thirteen tracks, instead of the final nineteen. He noted that "it was just little things that were missing about [the album]. It was a narrative I felt like wasn't all the way told, it was some sonic moments that I didn't get a chance to create yet. So I went back in the last two to three months and cut more new ideas. That's when I felt like it was done". When asked where the album was recorded, Faiyaz went in-depth:Everywhere. Even with this album, I did this in every city. I did some of it in New York, some of it in Atlanta. Some of it in Los Angeles, some of it in the Bahamas. Everywhere. I just like cooking up wherever I'm at, and I catch a vibe just naturally. If I am out and I'm faded and I feel a type of way that makes me want to write something, I'll just be like, "Somebody book me some studio time," wherever. Fly the engineer out so I can cook some shit up right here, right now.

For Vogue, Faiyaz called the making of the album "less of an album process and more of a life process" where he "made a collection of songs and tied a story line together once I saw that they all kind of shared a similar theme" and "didn't really realize I was working on an album until I was maybe a little over halfway through". Asked to name his inspirations for the album, he said "I was watching a lot of Tarantino films. I was watching Jackie Brown over and over again. I was also watching Vanilla Sky on repeat. I pulled a lot from that. But mostly I was inspired by the different people that I locked in with, from The Dream [sic] to Alicia Keys. I was just soaking up game from artists like Raphael Saadiq and No I.D., who have been doing this longer than I have". For Business Insider, Faiyaz broke down the significance and background behind the skits on the album. Faiyaz revealed that the album's lead single, "Dead Man Walking" was inspired by the murder of George Floyd, noting that he "built the record around [the song]" and that he "spent maybe that whole two years making that project" from 2020 to 2022. Faiyaz stated that he "couldn't skip the steps and not tell the whole story" and that the skits were later added to the album by its executive producer, Jonathan "Freeze" Wells:With the skits and the women characters involved, In "Wake Up Call," she doesn't want to have my kid but is pregnant. Her not wanting to have the baby and feeling like she is forced to commit suicide touches on the current times we are in. Women's rights are being stripped as we speak, Wasteland is going to touch on a lot of different topics. While there are a lot of moments of clarity as well, there are many sobering moments.

At the same time, you may have nights where you turn everything up too much and wake up the next morning by yourself and your heart hurts. Wasteland is about it all.