The Daily Gamecock

New Music Thursday: Khalid Robinson with debut album 'American Teen'

Earlier this month, 19-year-old El Paso native Khalid Robinson released his debut studio album, titled “American Teen.” Robinson, who is better known by his mononym Khalid, is an up and coming artist that effortlessly blends the divide between a singer-songwriter and an R&B musician. A year ago Khalid was a high school senior, unsigned to any label and uploading songs to SoundCloud. Since its release on March 3, “American Teen” has climbed the U.S. pop music charts, and on March 25 reached the 9th spot on the Billboard 200.

Khalid is now signed to RCA Records, a label that has notably partnered with many “big name” pop artists including Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown and Pitbull, among others.

Khalid’s smooth synth-pop melodies give his music a distinctive, yet incredibly catchy sound that complements the upbeat bass lines present in most of the tracks on the album. His rich and soulful vocals are characteristic of crooner contemporaries such as Leon Bridges and Allen Stone. This style adds depth and maturity to his music and seems to echo that of R&B classics. So much so that Khalid’s lyrics are the sole indication that Khalid is a teenager.

“American Teen” chronicles the highlights and pitfalls of high-school life and adolescence. Youth and vitality are reoccurring themes throughout Khalid’s music, certainly eliciting feelings of nostalgia for those who relate to millennial culture.

As the title suggests, “8TEEN” is an ode to being 18 years old. In the chorus, Khalid states, “I’ve never fell in love / I saved those feelings for you / So let’s do all the stupid shit that young kids do.” Khalid’s top single "Location" skyrocketed after Kylie Jenner featured a clip of it on her Snapchat story last May. In this song he pleads with a love interest to send him her location in order to meet up. These types of lyrics are present in a lot of Khalid’s music; and, although they occasionally distract from the music itself, they paint a warm and romantic image of youth.

“Falling in love in high school and falling out of love – it's very digital," Khalid told Rolling Stone. “I've had breakups where they've called me to tell me we were done, and I've gotten a lot of text messages from an old girlfriend letting me know how she felt about me after we had ended everything."

Overall, Khalid’s album is worth a listen. It’s full of potential summer anthems, and it balances R&B, pop and indie music well, without being overbearing. Although he's new to the music scene, Khalid is certainly going places. 


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