Escape Room

Escape Room is somewhat anticlimactic. Five years earlier, Teyana Taylor released The Album, and shortly thereafter, dissatisfied with the lack of support she received from Def Jam, she declared her wish to retire from music. Between then and 2025, Taylor and her label worked it out, and she made her fourth LP. Accompanied by a short film, this powerful statement of emotional and sexual liberation is billed by the singer as "a world I built to live in, bleed in, and heal in." Taylor has been one of the most compelling artists in contemporary R&B since 2014s VII, yet roughly a quarter of this long-awaited return is voiced by others. Granted, its an awe-inspiring cast of women, from Taraji P. Henson to Regina King, assisting the arc with theatrical poetic readings, as Taylor sets fire to a relationship, flashes back to its pains and pleasures and, at full power, enters a white-hot new one. After a lengthy introduction from Henson that transitions from seething to screaming, Taylor enters the picture not with a blistering confrontation in the vein of "Ring the Alarm," but with a ballad in which shes backed by little more than Spanish guitar, "Fire Girl." Switching between her natural voice and Jamaican patois, she doesnt pull any punches ("F*ck you and your existence"), but its otherwise composed nature gives it the feel of a second introduction, one that clashes with the first in terms of energy and temperament. And then theres another spoken part, followed by "Long Time," a probing house dismissal that fades out before the two-minute mark, giving way to consecutive narrative tracks and the bittersweet early-70s soul throwback "Hard Part," a duet with an empathetic Lucky Daye. Choppy alternation between spoken and sung parts continues through much of the programs second half, as Taylor and her guests wrangle with the power dynamics of prospective new love and (with an especially apt Jill Scott appearance) delight in magnetic physical attraction. The erotic slow jams, led by the finely wrought "Bed of Roses," tend to fade out sooner than necessary as well. Taylor closes with "Always," a stirring acoustic ballad that signifies artistic rebirth with help from her daughters. A fifth album with a greater amount of music is hopefully in Taylors near future. Her voice and pen have been missed. ~ Andy Kellman

俳優業での活躍が目立っていたテヤナ・テイラーが音楽に復帰。短編映画の製作を念頭に置きながら制作されたというコンセプト先行の一作を発表した。前作『The Album』から5年の間に、音楽界からの引退や離婚などの激動があったことも反映してか、錚々たる女優陣の感情的なナレーションを挿みながらストーリーが展開する思慮深くムーディーな楽曲群は、自身へのセルフ・セラピーかのよう。ジル・スコットとタイラを迎えたディープなミディアム"Pum Pum Jump"や、ケイトラナダらしさに溢れるハウス"Open Invite"、ラッキー・デイとの共演によるスウィートなソウル"Hard Part"など良曲は多数。
bounce (C)池谷瑛子