“Lovesick” Album Review (Rating and Song Ranking At The End)

Gavin Resendez Lopez, sports editor, photographer
April 26, 2023

On Friday February 24, Don Toliver released his 3rd studio album “Lovesick” after teasing it and dropping the tracklist on social media during the week leading up to the official release. Don also released 3 singles from the album before it’s release, those songs being “Do It Right,” “4 Me” featuring Kali Uchis, and “Leave The Club” featuring GloRilla and Lil Durk. The album itself is comprised of 16 different songs with features from various artists, with the album being almost 53 minutes long. Now after learning some background information, let’s get into the actual review.

To start things off, “Lovesick” has a song for just about every mood, including some dance music. The album has a ton of variety and it does not face the “every album sounds the same” problem. The opening track “LoveSickness” starts off fast but slows down representing how the songs in the album shift from fast and exciting to slow and with a focus on lyrical content, which is a very common theme and not a bad thing at all. To continue on with specific songs, “LoveSickness” is a great start but not the best song on the album. Depending on the mood, my personal favorite song would have to be either “Slow Motion,” “If I Had,” or “Leather Coat.” From an objective standpoint I believe “If I Had” featuring Charlie Wilson is the best song on the album in terms of production, lyrics, and just overall how the song sounds. The production of the song is very reminiscent of older soul and R&B music which leads me to my thoughts and conclusions about the production.

You can tell from the start that the album has a huge focus on the production, which is a huge plus because the production is AMAZING. Don Toliver comes through and delivers in both the rapping and vocals department. Don’s unique vocals and production makes you hooked and wanting to hear more. The album takes a lot of inspiration from early 2000’s and 90’s/80’s soul and R&B music, which is also the main theme and feel of the album. The marketing behind the album truly emphasizes this and a fair amount of the songs are sampled or directly share lyrics from songs that were popular in the 80’s/90’s. For example, the chorus of “Do It Right” is a direct imitation of “Take Your time” a popular soul/R&B song released in 1980 by The S.O.S BAND. Overall this inspiration and theme works so well especially with Don Toliver’s vocals and it genuinely elevates how the album sounds which to me is most important.

Additionally, features on an album are just as important as anything else, and the features on “Lovesick” get the job done and are pretty fair overall. The album has features from artists Future, Justin Bieber, Kali Uchis, Brent Faiyaz, Charlie Wilson, Lil Durk, GloRilla, TisaKorean, Wizkid, James Blake, and Toro y Moi, with additional features from Travis Scott and Teezo Touchdown on the deluxe album. The features at first can seem underwhelming to some fans but when listening to the album it does not seem that way at all. In some of the songs with features such as “Cinderella” with Toro y Moi, “Go Down” with TisaKorean, Let Her Go with James Blake, and “Bus Stop” with Brent Faiyaz, Don Toliver takes up most of the time in the song but that does not stop the features from still being great especially in “Bus Stop” and “Go Down.” My favorite aspect of the features is how they all have a purpose. For example, in “Leave The Club,” Lil Durk and GloRilla are supposed to be different points of views or perspectives in the overarching story being told in the song. This is present in pretty much every song in the album and it just adds on to the other positives of the album. Overall the features are good and are very complimentary when listening to the album.

It may be easy to be biased when discussing albums we like however, there are flaws to “Lovesick” like with every other album. Besides Don Toliver’s vocal style and auto tune being something that’s not for everyone, the main flaws in the album are length and lyrical content. First off, the length of certain songs is too long and that time would be better off on a different song. The album is also very long for a Hip Hop album, with there being 16 songs on the normal version and 20 on the deluxe. The amount of songs and the overall length can be overwhelming and fatiguing and it is not uncommon to find myself sitting there getting tired and just trying to listen to a certain song. However, this is only on rare occasions and the variety in the songs make “Lovesick” a very easy album to listen to completely not just once, but multiple times too. Lyrical content can also be a criticism of the album. The lyrics may not be considered great by some people, but to me the lyrics are fine and they can be amazing when they need to be. In certain songs like “If I Had” the lyrics are great and create a meaningful and overall good story. Additionally, lyrics aren’t really a concern for me at all especially when it comes to certain albums like Trap albums or soul albums. Overall my only real point of criticism is the length of the album but I honestly rarely see that as a problem when listening.

To wrap everything up and stop wasting your time, the album is a very good listen and is definitely something I would recommend to everyone. Nothing can beat or is more important than how an album sounds and makes you feel, which is why “Lovesick” is such a great album to me. The sound, theme, and feel of the album is top tier and it leads to my final rating of the album.

Biased Rating: 20/10

Unbiased and Actual Rating: 9/10

Personal Ranking Of Every Song (Including Deluxe):