"No more sending girlfriends to therapy by labeling himself a "walking erection" or basking in his hedonism with rhetorical questions like, "I like to run the streets 'til it's dark out and then come home and blow your back out/I hope that's OK?" After years of cold-hearted, gothic mood pieces that cribbed from The-Dream's writerly breakup ballads and Jodeci's sex-crazed fantasies, Brent Faiyaz is leaving all of that baggage in the past. Icon is his gentle and mature pivot into the grown folks R&B canon."
"The Oh shit, I'm pushing (or just hit) 30 album is a rite of passage for the R&B playboy. What comes to mind: the Don Draper-like commitment crisis of Dwele's 2008 project Sketches of a Man; Life Goes On, Donell Jones' regret-fueled 2000s time capsule, looking back at all the games he played throughout his 20s. But Faiyaz's emotional growth on Icon-stamped with a Raphael Saadiq executive producer credit that seems like it's just for show-isn't nuanced enough."
Brent Faiyaz pivots away from overt hedonism toward a softer, more mature grown-folks R&B sound on Icon. Previous work relied on cold-hearted, gothic mood pieces, clubrat fantasies, and writerly breakup ballads influenced by The-Dream and Jodeci. The album follows the familiar 'pushing 30' rite-of-passage theme seen in projects like Dwele's Sketches of a Man and Donell Jones' Life Goes On. Emotional growth on Icon feels underdeveloped and insufficiently nuanced; a Raphael Saadiq executive producer credit reads as largely cosmetic. Vulnerable tracks from earlier releases contained candid self-critique, but Icon rarely explains why a shift toward settling has occurred.
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