Willow Smith1 is the modern definition of the quirky young starlet, born into fame and money. She’s done a lot of different things, all sorts of various creative pursuits,2 but she keeps coming back to music.3
And she’s good at it. Granted, she has a lot of money to throw at it, and the credits show that she has a lot of supporting talent in the songwriting department, but only one track on Empathogen lacks her name in the writing credits. She’s involved. Several of the names seem to be various instrumentalists who likely wrote their own lines, such as multi-instrumentalist Chris Greatti, who plays guitar, bass, and percussion on several tracks, each (and even the piano on track 9).
Empathogen is Willow’s 6th studio album, and the third that I’ve covered.4 It also completely diverges from what I’ve come to expect from Willow’s music. While I have not listened to her first three albums, her last two were decidedly Pop Punk, leaning more into the Rock aspects.
But the Punk influences are sparse on Empathogen, almost completely absent until you get to track 9, “Run!”; “Between I and She”, the very next track, is also very Punk-forward, but then comes “I Know That Face”, which is more a blend of R&B and Jazz elements.
At large, then, Empathogen is best described as something like Experimental Pop Rock, with strong influences from and elements of: Jazz,5 Prog, Punk, R&B, and probably more that I haven’t placed. And this blend works very well. The album is full of genuinely interesting songs.
But it also faces several of the same problems that I noted on her last couple of albums: length and repetition. I get that short tracks are pretty typical in Punk, but songs under two minutes may as well not even exist with how my mind handles passive listening. And four of the album’s twelve tracks fall short of two minutes.
The album as a whole lasts only 32 minutes. I know most people stream their music nowadays (like me), but I still feel kinda cheated by “albums” or “LPs” that don’t hit at least 40. Maybe I’m being a bit old-fashioned there, but if anybody reading my reviews prefers to buy vinyl (I would if I could), they need to know what they’re getting for their money. It’s the reason album reviews exist, and it wouldn’t make sense not to factor it in.
Besides: You want a shorter format? Release an EP; call it an EP.
Finally, I have to acknowledge that she did close the album with a song of decent length: 4:24. But the final minute or so is nothing but repetition. It hits the point of grating; as does “Pain for Fun”, which features St. Vincent.
It’s really unfortunate, because I genuinely enjoy the sound of the album; in many ways, it might be her best work yet. But she seems to not know how to write songs longer than about three minutes. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it feels like a major limitation.
Some people won’t mind that, though.
I think Willow still has room to grow. She is talented, and this album shows it at several points. I’m just not sure, at this point, where her continued growth will take her.
Rating: Yellow
As her stage name is just her first name, I won’t be using her surname going forward.
I should note that her book was heavily criticized by reviewers well before its intended October 2022 release date. It was delayed for over a year, and finally came out in May 2024; it appears that the book was thoroughly revised in response to the criticism.
Unfortunately, so does the “definitive young starlet” of the 00s, Paris Hilton. Hilton has an album out in September. I won’t be covering it.
I won’t be bolding her name, either.
I have covered previously:
Lately I Feel Everything (2021)
Green; Unranked.
Coping Mechanism (2022)
Green; Unranked.
I should point out here that Jon Batiste features in the album’s opening song, “Home”.