By Sky Pinkett
Staff Writer
With artists such as Kehlani, Leon Thomas, Coco Jones and Mariah the Scientist dominating the charts and earning Grammy nominations left and right, R&B finally seems to be experiencing a modern resurgence. Summer Walker’s third studio album “Finally Over It” arrives just in time to contribute to this rich comeback.
This album marks the ultimate conclusion to Walker’s “Over It” trilogy, beginning with her breakout debut “Over It” in 2019 and followed by 2021’s “Still Over It.” Both albums introduced the world to Walker’s confessional records on love, heartbreak and the struggles in moving on.
Walker has been leading the girlies (including yours truly) through angst and heartbreak circa 2018, validating these feelings through raw lyrics, heavy trap beats and emotive vocals. But on “Finally Over It,” Walker urges the audience to follow her out of pain and into healing.
This mature perspective can be seen on singles such as “Spend It” (which surprisingly didn’t end up in the final digital cut) and the album’s cover art, where she has given up on fairytale love and has decided to take the realistic, financially-stable, sugar daddy option.
This semi-humorous, semi-serious angle carries through in the album’s fun second track “Robbed You,” where she and Mariah the Scientist sing, “I should’ve robbed you / I should’ve popped you.”
Following this track is “No,” a short but effective assertion of Walker’s refusal to be a stereotypical housewife. The song is very much Aaliyah-coded, and stands out on the album as one of the few songs Walker allows herself to dominate the entire track by herself.
This brings us to one of the glaring problems of this album: the features. Walker has long had an issue with too many features on her projects: “Over It” and “Still Over It” had seven, while this album has nine. It wouldn’t be a problem if the musical guests added anything to the song, but most times, like on “Give Me A Reason” with Bryson Tiller and “Baller” with GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Monaleo, the low-energy guests just take away from hearing more of Walker on her own album.
Besides Walker and Brent Faiyaz’s ear-pleasing “Number One” duet that should’ve been longer, the best feature on this record was by far “1-800 Heartbreak” with Anderson .Paak. Not only is the listener treated to a song longer than two minutes, but this five minute song features great vocals from Walker and cleverly introduces .Paak through a phone call style that ties into the song's gimmick.
If not for some wack .Paak lyrics such as, “You tell me I need Jesus, so I text message my deaconess / She sent back some freaky s—, pictures of her coochie lips,” this song would be a 10 out of 10.
Righteous Chris Brown vitriol aside, Walker and Brown’s vocals on “Baby” blend well together, making the song’s only problem being the unnecessary sample of Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby.”
The same can’t be said for Latto’s part on “Go Girl,” a song with poor lyrics that even Walker herself can’t salvage. The only person to truly make something out of the heavenly beat is Doja Cat.
Along with being bloated with features, the album almost suffers from being bloated with too many non-descript, sleepy trap-beats and no catchy choruses. Excellent 90s inspired songs like “Don’t Make Me Do It / Tempted” and “Heart of a Woman” along with the more country-twang songs “FMT” and “Allegedly” with Teddy Swims help to break up the unmemorable melody most of the songs share.
As for the thematic content, Walker delivers on her newfound maturity concerning love as she sings on the closing track, “Sure you wanna share your last name with me? / Baby, I’m sure I do / …Love is for better or worse, so I do, I do.”
From lover girl to jaded heartbreaker to a woman ready to commit herself in a relationship no matter what, Walker’s journey through love across the “Over It” trilogy has been relatable, cathartic and healing. “Finally Over It” may not be a perfect album, but it certainly leaves listeners feeling bittersweet that it’s finally over.
