Camper
Campilation
NOVEMBER YELLOW
Ever since dropping two of 2020’s most dynamic R&B tracks, “Grip” and “Sleep,” Camper has made a name and a spirit for himself based on what I know of as the motto for the Art Ensemble of Chicago and their namesake town’s now 60-year-old Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians: Great Black Music, ancient to the future. With the aid of Brandy on the latter track (who never sounded so sensuous as she did here) and a set of stinging soulful melodies and sweeping, techy arrangements, the mononymous producer reset the soul bar in a way similar to what (by Camper’s estimation) a teenaged Khalid did for hip-hop. And now, with his debut album flush with the most historic—past and present—list of Black voices since Quincy Jones’ Back on the Block, Camper finds yet another way to remake the wheel of soul.
Bookended by the wuthering heights of the weighty “Tonight” with the voice of Lucky Daye and Victoria Monét’s awestruck “Love You,” Camper-the-Creator arranged a synth-orchestrated symphony dedicated to sainted romance in the 21st century that’s never lewd or licentious, yet never shies from sexuality. The legacy of The Isley Brothers comes through loud and clearly with vocalist-producer Alex Isley during the dramatic “Sixteen Summers,” and Stevie Wonder nestles into the cooly complex grooves and graceful, interconnected harmonies of “Love Me” in a manner you only pray that Stevie would make his own again. Across the back-to-back rocky terrains of “War” and “Ooo Wee,” the vocal teams of Ari Lennox and Jeremih and Jill Scott and Ty Dolla $ign, respectively, roll on fussily, muskily, and with all four of their hearts on one sleeve.
Even Brandy couldn’t stay away from Camper’s uniquely styled, jiggly R&B treaties, returning here in order to make “Back & Forth” into something both amorphous—like a haunting, lingering scent—and piercing. If this is what R&B is going to look and sound like going forward in Camper’s hands, I can’t wait for his next round.
