REVIEW: I’ve Got Such Big Feelings for WILLOW’s Emotive, Exploratory and Excellent New LP “empathogen”

I’m starting off straight up corny by saying I’ve been a “transparent soul” with anyone who’d listen to me about my anticipation of WILLOW’s sixth and latest solo LP, which finally dropped May 3rd.

My owning of my corniness, turns out, totally vibes with the messages about the freedom to express & accept your feelings, warts and all, coursing throughout the #greatalbum “empathogen” (2024).

Not only do I absolutely love how WILLOW wrestles lyrically (and musically) with Big Ideas such as existence, ego, anxiety, pain, self-sabotage, fear and love, she does so in such soul-felt, sophisticated & surprising ways, I have to compliment the precise production by WILLOW and her fellow producers Chris Greatti, Eddie Benjamin and Jon Batiste.

There are myriad sounds, echo effects and vocal arrangements involved in each track, even the stripped down ones, but none ever feel overdone — just purposeful and fresh. It’s as if WILLOW threw her hands into the cosmic river of music, tapped into its source, and allowed it to flow freely through her.

There’s a lot going on technically in the music I can’t speak on with any authority (e.g. the multiple time signatures, turnarounds, uncommon verse/chorus structures) but what I can talk about is how it hits the ears and how it feels — free, unexpected, relatable, or, in one word — embracing.

WILLOW is clearly a student of music and draws on varied influences (her IG post of her working her voice out to Ella Fitzgerald’s legendary scat on “How High The Moon” blew my mind a few months ago and still lives rent free in what’s left of my head), but right now she’s reminding me most of the great Esperanza Spalding, particularly during her “Emily’s D+Evolution” (2016) jazz/pop/rock era.

WILLOW’s own pop/rock/punk/soul explorations from the past few years also inform her current jazz/funk/fusion present (and hopefully future).

The singles released from the LP, “symptom of life” and “bigfeelings”, are the best ambassadors for this tight 12-song offering which literally begins with what sounds like an off-mic Jon Batiste screeching, as if being born, “I love everything!”

(BTW, could Batiste be on more of a roll? He also co-produces and co-writes “Ameriican Requiem”, the opening track on COWBOY CARTER. If I’m an artist, I’m thinkin get this man to help kick off my LP, stat, cuz greatness will surely follow!)

After Batiste, we hear steady rimshots underneath WILLOW’s “ah oo ah ah” breaths until she sings “I live my life” — and I didn’t conjure my previous cosmic music river metaphor out of nowhere as WILLOW then sings “I trust this river to carry me / home” in this mystifyingly captivating LP opener titled “home”.

There are stops, starts, some cascading piano from Batiste (which sounds like a river)… I mean, wow. On first listen, this track made me think “I have no idea where this LP is going but I dig how it feels and I’m down for this journey.”

BTW, I think every choice WILLOW makes is purposeful with this LP so when I asked myself, “Why 12 songs?”, I looked up the number 12 and in magical symbolism, 12 represents perfection, entirety, one cycle ending and another beginning, one built on harmony and positive transformation. (And FWIW, almost every one of Esperanza Spalding’s LPs is comprised of 12 tracks.)

We then go into the 90-second “ancient girl” as if we’re going back to the beginning of time — with acoustic guitar doubling the melody, Willow chant/sings “girl — irl-irl gi-rlrlrlrlrl” in a way that sounds like it’s coming from a primordial, ancestral source.

From there the LP glides into “symptom of life”, the first familiar-sounding tune (in terms of modern song structure), its delicate opening piano melody quickly counterpointed by halting, arrhythmic drums and ethereal backing vocals — thus making it gorgeous, challenging, and gorgeously challenging.

From this point on, “empathogen” cooks with place-your-favorite-accelerant here — “the fear is not real” has layered vocals in its last third that are evocative some of Beyoncé’s most potent vocal stacks on COWBOY CARTER (i.e. “My Rose” and “Amen”); the minimal “pain for fun” featuring St. Vincent delivers mightily on what the intensity of (and need for) intimacy can feel like:

“no words 1&2” is another under 90-second wonder that despite its brevity is a fulfulling aural treat; “down” is even shorter — 1:11 — but it’s also its own singular piece of beauty that feels spiritually conjured from the DNA of Meshell Ndegeocello’s “Bitter” LP.

The kinetic, driving rock/funk/emo exploration of anxiety and intrusive thoughts in “run!” comes next, and in the track following it, the more wistful, indie pop/rock-sounding “between i and she”, WILLOW attempts to sort out what it’s like when you struggle to find the space in your head between the first and third person where you can just be yourself.

WILLOW evokes yet another genre-blending, introspective musical foremother on “I know that face.” The rhythmic melody of the song’s first verse “I’ve been / searching / for what / I don’t know / Maybe / I’m too / urgent / to know it all” brings to mind the first verse from the Janet Jackson track “My Need”: “I know / you know / what exactly’s on my mind / I can’t help / myself / part of how I feel tonight”.

I don’t know if this is an intentional hat tip, musically or otherwise (Jackson’s brilliant sixth studio LP “The Velvet Rope” explores similar themes of self-worth and self-doubt), but even if it isn’t WILLOW’s ability to artfully express interior emotions and thoughts through lyric and sound is mature, creative and sits perfectly in this generational continuum.

The piano that’s been cascading in moments throughout “empathogen” is highlighted in the intro of its final, explosive, monster track “bigfeelings”. This song sums up “empathogen” perfectly in its accelerated, fluctuating tempos, its chaotic/melodic bass & piano lines and in its chorus/verse of “I have such big feelings / can’t shut ’em down without a sound / i have such big feelings / can’t shut ’em down or let ’em out / i know I’m not fine / but yes i say I’m fine…”

“bigfeelings” is a gripping, absorbing, all-around expression of individual and collective anxiety and not knowing what to do with all of your emotions, because expressing them sometimes isn’t “acceptable.” But if you shut them down and don’t express them, it can cause just as much if not more harm.

Willow has called “bigfeelings” her favorite song that she’s recorded to date, and it’s easy to understand why. Not only does it offer her most creative and complex vocals (that Ella training really pays off here!), it floats, attacks, amuses, emotes, challenges and grooves.

Lastly, I have to give a special shout out to my personal favorite, “false self”, the fifth and possibly funkiest, most danceable track on the LP. Its lyrics are as potent as the groove and just totally nail the inner struggle with self-esteem and growth that people at all ages and stages can relate to: “I wanna crash / feel so attacked / on a mad dash in my own brain / I’m so attached / I’m so detached / Yeah, I don’t know / it’s all the same / Am I insane? / Feel the answer change each day / Feel the answer change / I don’t wanna change / But I need to change / Feel the answer change each day / Feel the answer change / I don’t wanna change / But I need to change / How do I need to change? / Ask myself the same every day”.

It makes total sense that “false self” is so danceable, because this is the dance we do with ourselves internally.

The LP’s title and cover imagery are teeming with metaphoric levels, too. The word “empathogen” is defined as a drug that induces experiences of emotional communion, oneness as well as feelings of empathy and benevolence.

And the LP cover (shown above the headline) is WILLOW, bare shouldered, hair styled in an afro (aka, a “natural”), smiling with a grill (in a way that you’re not quite sure if it’s from joy or turmoil) against a light brown backdrop that matches her skin color.

I ordered the vinyl version of this LP via willowsmith.com, and the vinyl itself is the same shade of brown — visually signifying “this is me in my natural state, this is me in my skin”, and at every turn the whole “warts and all, I feel in all kinds of ways that I wrestle with and that’s okay” theme of the music residing inside “empathogen”.

If all this weren’t enough, WILLOW’s recent appearance on NPR’s “Tiny Desk” concert series with her crack band featuring Liso Lee on guitar & vocals, Zach Tenorio on keys, Mohini Dey on bass, and Taylor “The Pocket Queen” Gordon on drums promises a live concert experience that will extend and expand on what is an already absorbing and impressive LP.

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic to some (though it feels right to me, so I’m going with it — WILLOW has taught me that!), “empathogen” is to WILLOW what “Music of My Mind” was to Stevie Wonder — a breakthrough lyrical and musical expression of self, soul (and, by extension, the universal) — and a grand overture to what promises to be even more innovative, insightful, mind/heart-altering music to come.