Review: Lost EP by Brent Faiyaz

Just over a year since the release of his debut album Sonder Son, Brent Faiyaz, featured on Issue II of our magazine, is back with an impressive new project. Lost is a 7 track EP and the latest addition to Faiyaz’s discography. New music from him has been highly anticipated with the demand increasing even more so after Faiyaz took to Instagram to show he had been writing.

The name Lost, in the artist’s own words is an acronym for ‘Living On Stolen Time’

The Lost EP encompasses Brent’s signature style, the tracks are melodic and highlight his vocal agility. But Lost uses a lot of deeper, more melancholic tones with songs that make use of guitar as displayed in the penultimate track ‘Poundz’ as well as in ‘Target On My Chest’’ featuring Loshendrix. But what makes this new music great is the fact that is both true to his sound and successful in presenting a whole different vibe and format.

The format change is shown with ‘Why’z it so hard’ – the intro to the EP, it has a prolonged start and switches up from on several occasions.

Sonder Son as an album was quite rightly more extensive with many of the songs being double sided, ending or including skits. In some cases, switching into a different mini song. Subsequently, returning several tracks that were over 4 minutes in length. Lost however is shorter, although still inclusive of skits, the longest track on the EP being ‘Came Right Back’ which just about reaches 4 minutes.

‘It’s less of a musical statement and more of just a reflection of how the world feels about me right now’. – Brent Faiyaz (Talking to Nylon Mag)

Lost is raw and reflective, it touches on personal topics that resonate with the masses. From earlier projects, its clear that the Maryland born singer has no issue with being ‘real’. In Sonder Son, Brent referred to struggles he faced settling into stardom and aspects of his life leading up to his life in LA. This EP is a continuation of that, it finds him enveloping himself into his role as an artist in the public eye.

At only 23 years old, Faiyaz although in a world dissimilar to many of ours is still subject to the mishaps of being 20-something. In addition to the baggage of mental health issues - which he highlights the significance and oppression of as a Black man. Tapping into this, the songs on this EP are dually heartfelt and make for a good listen and sing-along.

Songs like ‘Came Right Back’, Why’z it so hard’ and ‘Poundz’ offer more of a chilled, emotional vibe. But if you want to get more active and up-beat, listen to listen to ‘Trust’ and ‘Around Me’

Be sure to check out the Lost EP, out now on all platforms.

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