Gripsweat is shutting down. Starting on February 1st, 2025 the site will no longer be doing daily updates, adding any new items, or accepting new memberships. The site will continue to run in this "historical" mode until January 1st, 2026, when the site will go offline. More information is available here.
Sold Date:
March 31, 2021
Start Date:
January 7, 2021
Final Price:
$28.99
(USD)
Seller Feedback:
43282
Buyer Feedback:
0
Store Categories KEHLANI It Was Good Until It Wasn't / LP NEW VINYL / Atlantic 2020
A twisting route to Kehlani's second proper album reached the final stretch on Valentine's Day 2020 with YG's "Konclusions," the most personal in a string of intermediary tracks on which the singer was featured. It was a fairly typical (if highly detailed) question of commitment from the headliner, answered in the affirmative by Kehlani's hook. Only a few days later, Kehlani responded to the contrary with her own "Valentine's Day (Shameful)," a two-part ballad in which she accosted a cheating, unappreciative ex. While the song didn't appear on May arrival It Was Good Until It Wasn't, its considered verses, linked by a chorus that only probed deeper into Kehlani's soul -- without sugar-coated sentiments for mainstream appeal -- most certainly indicated the LP's direction. It Was Good Until It Wasn't is similarly less pop than SweetSexySavage, her full-length debut, and considerably more intense than the commercial 2019 mixtape While We Wait. Rarely does it deviate from hot-blooded vexation and sensuality, inwardly and outwardly basking in and critiquing the intoxicating and ultimately poisonous aspects of relationships. Although there are some clumsy similes and metaphors, and a surplus of astrological references, its lyricism is undeniable, abundant in pithy rebukes and come-ons. And while the predominantly crawling tempos can have a tranquilizing effect, there's nuance to nearly every cut with high-level songwriting to match. Take the Boi-1da-led "Serial Lover," like a smoothed-out late-'90s meeting between Timbaland and Babyface, albeit with an explicit chorus and a boast -- "I got bodies I'm-a take to the grave/I got girls I wanna give my last name" -- that would have been instantly rejected by urban-format radio programmers decades ago. "Hate the Club," a cleverly tiptoeing, discreetly funky slow jam from Jahaan Sweet and Yussef Dayes, catches Kehlani on the reluctant prowl. She also links up with Jhené Aiko and previous collaborators Pop & Oak for the gently booming "Change Your Life," a rare moment of pure sweetness amid the surrounding expressions of anguish, lust, regret, and resignation.
A1 Toxic
A2 Can I
A3 Bad News
A4 Real Hot Girl Skit
A5 Water
A6 Change Your Life
A7 Belong To The Streets
A8 Everybody Business
A9 Hate The Club
B1 Serial Lover
B2 F&MU
B3 Can You Blame Me
B4 Grieving
B5 Open (Passionate)
B6 Lexii’s Outro