Music Review: Jessie Reyez returns in triumph with ‘Paid in Memories’

By Canadian Press on March 26, 2025.

Most artists would make the first song on their new album something welcoming, trendy or pleasing, at least to make the Spotify algorithm happy. Not Jessie Reyez.

She crafted a song with clear red flags — “I Never Said I Was Sane” — a totally bananas opening cut that includes screaming, taunting, religious texts, whispering, heavy distortion, a little flute and a babyish pout. “Lost some screws along the way to L.A.,” she sings.

That’s why Reyez is always a glorious sonic handful and why the album “Paid in Memories” is another of her messy triumphs. Think of her as the anti-Tate McRae.

The Toronto-bred musician is a magpie of an artist, taking a little from hip-hop here, dipping into some alt-rock on another, using a cool soul lick or a Latin beat. If you know where the next song is taking you, you’re lying. She can go from purring along to a plunky guitar to feet-planted battle rapping, even in the same song.

Reyez, who in the past leaned on co-writers, this time often supplies the music and lyrics alone, a sign of her continuing maturity and control. Few artists could accommodate such varied big-name guests as Lil Wayne, Miguel, 6lack, Lil Yachty, Deyaz, Big Sean and Ari Lennox. Each time, she makes it work on her terms.

One song — “Couldn’t Be Me” — features Sam Smith, and you might expect to hear their voices swirling together in a melodic, naughty club banger. Instead, Reyez sings a melancholy ballad of lost love, with the last minute taken up by a touching voicemail by Smith sending her encouragement after the breakup.

There’s often a bite to Reyez’s songs so it’s refreshing to hear unalloyed sincerity on “Goliath,” a pure love song: “You love me like a Sunday morning/But you kiss me like a Friday night.” There’s also the fun dance-pop “New York Baby,” which has the vibe of a hysterically low-rent “American Boy” by Estelle (she lands in Newark and is picked up by her lover in a truck).

“Jeans” with Miguel is destined to be one of the sexiest songs of 2025 (“Cause you fit/Better than a pair of jeans, baby”) and “Psilocybin & Daisies,” lifts from “1979” performed by The Smashing Pumpkins, terrifically. Who samples from the Pumpkins?

She and 6lack extend their long, fruitful collaborations — this time she accommodatingly stylizes the song “6lessings” for him as their styles swirl perfectly — and she gets slinky with the murky dance track “Palo Santo.”

Reyez gets very personal at times — her estrangements with her brother is the topic of a song — and on “Been Abouta Year” takes stock of her life: “Where’s the famous silver lining I was promised?/To be honest/Life is falling kinda short.”

You and us all, sister. Just glad you’re here.

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Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press