Khalid’s popularity is not one that can go unnoticed the past year. Now standing at 4th in the world on Spotify, Khalid has had 3 top 10 Billboard hit songs and nineteen (!) on the Hot 100 list. Along with this, his debut 2017 album and 2018 EP, American Teen and Suncity, peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 list. He’s been quite successful and is very deserving of the praise he has received.
Just a few days ago, he released a new track, “My Bad”. I was excited to hear what Khalid would bring to the table with this new single, because his newest EP left me and many other fans wanting more. This new song was released in anticipation for his upcoming sophomore album, Free Spirit to be released soon on April 5th.
Though just a short song standing at a little under 3 minutes, it’s fun, light-hearted, and relaxed. It sounds like it could have easily been a B-side from either of his previous works. The topic of the song is very similar to that of his first single for the album, “Talk”. Khalid has recently been discussing the struggles of communications in his relationship. In this track, he dives into the complications lack of trust and miscommunication can cause in relationships. He specifically talks about the roles phone play in relationships (i.e. leaving your phone on silent, forgetting to answer texts, etc).
Said, my bad
Blowin' me up, we been wilin'
We was cool, yeah we was vibin'
Gotta put my phone on silent
The lyrics of this track aren’t the most complex or meaningful, but sometimes you need to listen to music a little more chill and surface-level so you can just relax; and Khalid is great at that.
Frankly, the introduction instrumentals of “My Bad” are very similar to that of his track “Better”. It’s very common for pop artists to try to recycle the ideas from their most successful songs or projects in hopes of their new release gaining the same amount of popularity.
He doesn’t stray much from his usual production and instrumentation here, but I’m hoping we see a bit more experimentation on this next album. He has a lot of musical potential to create something completely different from the poppy-summer-vibe of his last project. His unique, soulful voice paired with his r&b-influenced pop is a sound many try to pull off but not as effortlessly as Khalid. Stay tuned come April 5th when his new album is released; I can’t wait to review this one.
OVERVIEW
Rating: 2.5/5
Best line:
“No, don’t go reachin’ in your bag”
– Khalid, My Bad
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