The first single released for the new album, "Her Favorite Song," is a breezy, retro-styled tune accompanied with the vocals of British singer Jessie Ware. The track features distorted guitar strings and an infectious batch of lyricism with sing along choruses of"got to shake it off, shake it, got to shake it off shake it." "Back Seat Lover" makes it clear that the commanding, sultry vocals Hawthorne used to catapult his career are still very much present. It starts the album on a powerful note, which unlike many albums, also carries throughout the rest of the record. "The Stars Are Ours" delivers a mellow vibe with peppy percussion elements and lyrics capturing the "live for today" attitude. Other notable songs "Corsican Rose" and "Wine Glass Woman" showcase Hawthorne's multi-instrumental talents with his dynamic, soul ridden vocals.
The album doesn't stray too far from Hawthorne's original hip-hop roots, most apparent in "Crime." From the get-go, this song was set up for a triumphant tone with a mix of Kendrick Lamar's genre jumping rapping and Hawthorne's soaring falsetto. The slow moving track contains a description of a good time being destroyed by law enforcement, which ultimately ends up bringing the party down to the police department with "300 drunk mother**ckas in a holding cell." "The Only One" is stylized with a classic set of hip-hop beats while also paying a slight tribute to Hawthorne's previous job as a DJ by adding record scratching into the track. Album closer "All Better" is definitely the weakest song on Where Does This Door Go, but the ballad does offer up a creative and often overlooked take on love.
Mayer Hawthorne's previous album, How Do You Do, was by no means a weak collection of songs, but if there's anything to be learned from Where Does This Door Go it's that it is possible for artists to continually expand their musical genre while remaining faithful to their original sound. Hawthorne was able to bring back his neo-soul beats and hip-hop influences in addition to adding star collaborators for a third album that is by far his strongest one yet.
Grade: B+
He really has done an excellent job of shifting into a more 'mainstream' sound whilst maintaining his retro-informed roots in a way that makes such sense. Nice writeup. *tips hat*