Summer Walker- Life On Earth review

I first heard of Summer Walker on twitter sometime last year, in relation to her now infamous performances on her The First and Last Tour. Honestly, her candidness about how much she just didn’t want to be there was refreshing to me, so I decided to check out her debut LP Over It. And I was pleasantly impressed. The chill, vibey RnB she was bringing to the table, combined with her penchant for changing her look up every five minutes and always killing it made me a casual fan. Even when she made some…interesting comments about showering, how important makeup remover is when you can just use spit, and a variety of other things making me side eye her as a person, as a musician, I kept her in rotation. As such, it was only natural I’d be reviewing Life On Earth, her newest EP.

Track 1- Let It Go

The opening guitars remind me automatically of Rihanna’s California King Bed. An underrated vocal anthem, in my opinion. Unfortunately, Summers vocals don’t quite match up here. She sounds almost…slurred? I found myself actually leaning into my headphones to try and make out exactly what it was she was saying. The song swings between not enough and too much- the production and backing vocals swing in all at once, making it go from sparse to overcrowded without ever hitting a real sweet spot. One of the running vocal tracks throughout the song is particularly interesting- a high pitched whine that just about veers on the unpleasant.

Despite clocking in at 3 minutes 12 seconds, the song itself also feels surprisingly short, and makes the dreadful mistake of being completely forgettable- I couldn’t hum it to you despite it literally just finishing, even if you paid me.

Track 2- SWV

What was the reason? Like honestly, who thought that this was a good idea? I feel like if you looked up vacuous in the dictionary, you would see this song. Or the writing credits for it. It's three minutes of lazy song writing which just about culminates in telling us they want to do it in a car? I’m not sure. The feature sings so slow here it’s like he’s reading the lyrics for the first time, and they’re type in font size six- perhaps that’s why everyone sounds so bored.

Track 3- My Affection

Finally! Someone gave our gal Summer a cup of coffee or some sugar or…something- and she sounds energised! It comes through in the music, thankfully. Summers vocal is coherent, engaged and front and centre, layered over a minimalist production that suits to carry her smoothly over the first song in this collection that can, as of yet, be described as something you could move to.

Unlike the previous track, the collaborator here, the behemoth of cool music, PND, serves to actually alleviate the track with his contribution. The call and response of the pairs vocals actually sound like they are in the same room and communicating as opposed to an unengaging thrown together feature. From there, PNDs verse comes in just as Summers energy begins to falter, bringing the song up another level with vibrance and interest that was sorely lacking previously.

Track 4- White Tee

I’m thinking NO1-NOAH is to blame for the sound of this EP having a dreary, dragging effect. Is two songs enough to say someone just doesn’t make good music? I’m not sure, but his opening verse here, whilst less rap by numbers than on SVW is still nothing to write home about. Lyrically, his verse here also sets the womens rights movement back a good half century.

Thankfully, the energy from the previous track is carried over here for Summer, with her doing the most interesting thing we’ve heard with her voice so far in this collection- the only way I can think to describe it is she sounds cute? Actually embodying the lyrical content of the song- instead of submitting to this man’s request, she’s demanding his respect back in equal measure, but in a playful, coy manner, before taking it seriously, deepening her voice to sound threatening, telling her man ‘Them ugly ass hoes that be calling your phone, can get out my way, aye’ – sounds like a toxic relationship to me, but honestly the metaphor behind the title of the song made me laugh too much to give it serious thought.

Track 5- Deeper

It’s like Summer started this EP sucking on a gob stopper that got slowly but surely smaller throughout each song. It’s taken until the last track, but finally I can fully understand what she’s saying without having to strain my ears!

The second of two songs on a five track EP without a feature, and having it be pure Summer means all the onus is on her to keep the listener engaged. And she does…just about. It sounds like a closing track- the production is lush, very driving along as the sun sets with your roof down, but honestly, the lyrics are nothing to write home about. And although I was just praising her openness vocally, I do wish she sang this song straight, instead of with that oh so in trend indie twang- it’s distracting. Oh well. Maybe she can change it up on a live arrangement.

Conclusion

Overall, I would be let down by this EP if I was more invested in Summer Walker’s artistry- thankfully for me, I can take her or leave her. I think I will be leaving this body of work, but hey, maybe it’s just a gift for the fans type EP and she’s saving the best cuts for a second album. I guess we’ll see. I hope so, because honestly, this trend of female singer songwriters singing about how sad they are about the toxic men in their lives over mellow beats with a vocal technique that can only be described as constricted? I’m Over It.

1.5/5

Highlights- My Affection