Kaash Paige’s career so far has been brief, but impactful. Her first single, “Love Songs”, went viral on the social media app Tik Tok within a few months of its 2019 release. Shortly after, she also signed onto a record label, Def Jam, and released her first EP, “Parked Car Convos”. Her Twitter and Instagram pages have so far amassed a total of 437,000 followers. Now, almost a year into her career, Paige has finally released her highly anticipated debut album, “Teenage Fever”.
I was already a fan of Paige’s when “Teenage Fever” dropped. Her third record, “A Muse In Her Feelings”, is an early contender for the best R&B project of the year. After releasing a diverse set of singles throughout 2020, I had high hopes going into “Teenage Fever”. Even though I was slightly disappointed by the end result, I was also highly impressed, and know this will only lead to better content.
The album features a lot of musical heavy weights at the moment such as Isaiah Rashad, K Camp and Don Toliver. The album also features other new musical up-and-comers such as 42 Dugg and SSGKobe. The immersive production value and melodic sounds on the album’s opening track “London” set the album up perfectly, giving a clear image of the introspective, often relationship-driven story the album is about to tell.
If I’m being honest, “Teenage Fever” is a sleeper album, taking a few listens to get into. This isn’t helped by the album opener, “London”. Though the production value was good, it was overall a weak opener and left no impression other than as a filler song. The next song, “Grammy Week”, however, was a standout. The Don Toliver feature was an eye catcher. I loved the instrumentation of the song with Don Toliver adding perfectly to the tone. Coming off the heels of their other great collab, “Euphoria”, it was a great two peat.
The next song, “Lost Ones”, only really held my attention. The song after that, however, “Soul Ties” featuring SSGKobe, reignited my fire and hope within the album. The most prominent part of the song was the way the two verses from Paige and SSGKobe went back and forth, creating a storyline that held my attention for the entire track.
The other standout songs on “Teenage Fever” are “Jaded”, “Break Up Song”, “Problems” and “Mrs. Lonely”.
“Jaded”, initially released as a single, is a mid-tempo R&B song with similar musical styling to Drake’s “Trust Issues”. The relatable lyrics speak of a woman who’s reminiscing about a relationship that’s gone from fun to rocky. This is a standout track because Paige is showing off more on the melodic side of her R&B music as opposed to the Hip-Hop/Trap side that we are used to. So that, plus the overall production of the track, makes the song a great addition to the album.
“Break Up Song” features R&B/Rap superstar K Camp. The song speaks of Paige’s relationship issues with a person, basically serving as their breakup. Within K Camp’s verse, he sings from the guy’s perspective, adding another dimension to the overall storyline of the song. Like the other standouts of this album, “Break Up Song’s” instrumentation leaves a great impression, and it’s one of the few where the featured actually contributed something to the song.
“Karma” was an ok way to close the album. This track features Paige reflecting on the more introspective parts of the album’s overall storyline. If we are being honest, I thought this track, like “London”, was a weak way to close out the album, especially after the amazing tracks “Mrs. Lonely”, “SOS” and “Problems” featuring Isaiah Rashad. A great way to end the album would’ve been to have “London” close out the “Mrs. Lonely”. The production, vocals and harmonies used within “Mrs. Lonely” track would’ve meshed well with “London”. As is, “Karma” was a very midway end to an overall amazing album.
This album was ok, mostly held back by all the filler tracks used, such as “London”, “Karma”, and “Fake Love” featuring 42 Dugg. Hopefully, she will learn from “Teenage Fever” and create even better content in the future. With this amazing attempt at a debut album, Kaash Paige might finally reach mainstream success.
