Blackbear Showcases His Production Skills In "Cybersex"

Pop albums are all about production these days. A strong producer can be the make or break an album. Blackbear showcases his production skills in Cybersex, building a wonderful album mixed with modern hip-hop flair and his own poppy style.

Cybersex is thematically what you'd expect of a record regarding modern love. The first few tracks open it up with extravagance, 'gucci linen' bringing a badass beat and a flamboyant attitude (along with an edgy verse from 2 Chainz) before 'bright pink tims' follows it up with an admittedly trivial trope behind it. 'playboy shit' with Lil Aaron takes it a step further and fully adopting the fuckboy attitude, but then the album really starts picking up. The smooth choruses on 'e.z.' add a lot of flavor to the record as Blackbear's sense of melody really starts taking shine, Machine Gun Kelly helping out along the way.

When the album picks up, it doesn't fall out. It's powerful from the moment it gets going to the end. 'anxiety' with FRND is one of the strongest tracks on the record, looking internally while really bringing everything he's got on the production front (it's also very similar to Linkin Park's 'Sorry For Now' - our #1 song of the year - which he helped produce, which also helps it's case). The production is stellar in 'down 4 u' with T-Pain, as well. Chiller acoustic vibes take place in 'g2g ttyl' with THEY. for a sweet moment before the record concludes. Even the sillier tracks have their charm; 'thursday/froze over ("interlude")' is by itself not a stellar track, but the lyrics which ponders over how he and Lil Uzi Vert got with the same girl but Jared Leto is getting more is just genuinely funny to hear.

Blackbear showcases his production skills in cybersex, perfectly balancing modern culture with his own flair. It's not quite a celebration or a party, but an acceptance of sorts. It's very much a feeling of "this is where we're at right now, and that's okay." There's a lot of potential for greatness in Blackbear. This only continues to prove that.

Favorite Tracks: anxiety, e.z., g2g ttyl, down 4 u

Least Favorite Track: playboy

Rating: 79 / 100

Stream or buy Cybersex on Apple Music: