David Brown's arc is without precedent. He was a Top 20 American Idol finisher at the age of 19. A few years later, he made himself known as a songwriter with a number two R&B/hip-hop chart hit,
Ne-Yo's "She Got Her Own." Not until a decade after that did he debut under his alias, but
Lucky Daye fast became one of the hottest names in his genre, garnering six Grammy nominations, split appropriately enough across the traditional and progressive R&B categories, for
Painted and
Table for Two. Brown made that album and a follow-up duets EP in such close partnership with
D'Mile -- a top-flight producer who has also worked with
Ty Dolla $ign,
H.E.R., and
Silk Sonic -- that they could have been credited to Daye & D'Mile. The duo are as compatible as ever on
Candydrip. A couple pre-album singles indicated that the LP would be special. In "Over," which sounds something like
Babyface gone convincingly trap-soul, Brown is at his most impassioned, brimming with frustration albeit clear-headed enough to render wordplay like "Know you're a ten, but that attitude ain't fine." Next was "Candy Drip," a prowling and trippy slow jam of temptation, in which Brown isn't content to fade into the background as the losing player in a love triangle. Those two songs are among the most intense moments on the indeed-exceptional
Candydrip, an elaborate act of charmful persuasion for the most part. Brown flirts and pleas with evident desire to take a relationship to a higher level. His beloved can't be faulted for holding out when the indecision is rewarded with such delights. The first half is particularly dazzling, encompassing the blissful "God Body" (with a horn-splashed change in direction), the
Prince-ly falsetto pop-funk of "Feels Like," the title track, and subtler ballads such as "Guess" and "Deserve." The album could have ended on an anguished note with "Used to Be," a heartstring-tugger produced by
M-Phazes and Aidan Rodriguez, yet Brown crawls out with a trio of gems that include the radiant Philly soul-tinged "Cherry Forest" and unresolved "Ego," a soaring fusion of second-album
N.E.R.D and (no, really) "Streetwalker"-era
Jan Akkerman. ~ Andy Kellman