PARTYNEXTDOOR made a bold move in releasing his first project ever to iTunes as a paid download. Although he soon after offered it for free on his Soundcloud page, the album made it to the top spot on iTunes’ R&B/Soul albums chart and at the time of publication of this review sits at #2. Not bad for someone who was just introduced to us for the first time a few months ago.
Jay-Z announced the “#NewRules” and his plan to release his Magna Carta album to 1 million Samsung users for free before anyone else, securing himself a platinum certification from the academy. Kanye West took minimalist promotion to an extreme when he tweeted “JUNE EIGHTEEN”, the release date for the 10-track LP that we could come to find out would be called Yeezus, of course. With Hov and Kanye West paving the way for the new style of marketing, OVO’s strategy for PND isn’t completely outlandish.
So, who is PARTYNEXTDOOR? We don’t know much about him yet. Drake gave him a Twitter cosign back in April on Twitter when he tweeted a link to his first single “Make a Mil” along with the words “OVO Sound!” But that first single, “Make a Mil” introduced a song that was unique in its own right. Bringing an interesting R&B vocal style with a Toronto accent laced with an 808-heavy instrumental, PND peaked our interest.
Of course, people instantly drew comparisons between PND and ex-OVO representative The Weeknd. The public quickly looked at PARTYNEXTDOOR as The Weeknd’s replacement. It didn’t help that they were both from similar geographical locations and were in similar niche’s musically. But, for PND it really was more of a right place, wrong time situation. OVO is a great fit for the singer and his musical style is really aimed in an entirely different direction than The Weeknd’s, and you can hear this by listening to his debut album.
It was my hope that his debut project would contain a nice balance of hip-hop/club-friendly tracks “Make a Mil” and R&B-type songs like “Wus Good / Curious“. My prayers were answered when I pressed play. Introduced by the “Welcome to the Party” intro, an upbeat track that effectively does what the title says it’s meant to do. Follow that with “Wild Bitches“, refreshing production and more exposure of PND’s vocals for the listener, I was loving the party.
“Relax With Me” is when the tempo started to slow a bit. Similar to “Wus Good”, this track falls into the R&B niche a bit more than others on the album, but doesn’t find the OVO crooner venturing much with his vocals. The lyrics are as explicit as any hip-hop song, but the way in which he goes about reciting them make it feel like a love song without being as cheesy as one.
“Right Now” is easily the best track on this LP. PND shines when he’s on beats like these — hats and a heavy kick-snare pattern. Similar to his first single “Make A Mil”, he puts his Canadian accent to work and his vocals shine. This high-energy hip-hop track is sure to catch fire once it finds its way to the world’s speakers.
After “Make a Mil” finds its spot on the tracklist, “Break from Toronto” enters the mix and brings down the tempo once again. PND utilizes the Miguel sample to perfection and after some chopping of it, his vocals enter the track and he floats over the interlude.
“Tbh“, which we’re going to assume stands for “To be honest”, is the closest we get to a PARTYNEXTDOOR R&B ballad. The short two-minute tune features a more stripped-down instrumental and the vocals of the newcomer are put on full display. While it’s clear that PND relies on a lot of effects to get the sound that he likes with his voice, you can still hear the natural talent and uniqueness that it has here.
After the previously-released singles “Wus Good / Curious” and “Over Here“, the album comes to a close with “Ballin’“. By the title we would’ve thought this might be another hip-hop track. This is not the case. PND chooses to close the project on a mellow note, singing with an ego as big as his future, “I’m outta your league, baby, ‘Cause I been ballin’ for a minute”.
Final thought: Upon listening to his debut project, I’ve really never been more excited about a new artist than I am about PARTYNEXTDOOR. Similar to The Weeknd and Skylar Grey, his emergence from shadows into the spotlight is a slow one, but I hope to see more and more from this young talent. The only real knock one can have on this album is that it’s 10 tracks in length and the total playtime clocks in at less than 30 minutes. Other than that, I give it a solid 4.5 / 5 rating overall.
