Reviewing SYML’s Debut Album

I am here at 12 AM on May 3rd, 2019 to bring you my thoughts on SYML’s debut album and all I have to say is wow. The few times I’ve heard SYML has always been acoustic versions of his songs, but this album is nothing like I've heard from him before from powerful lyrics to beautiful vocals. SYML was able to toy with our emotions by allowing every song to stand on its own. Every song in this album had a purpose, a message, the intention to make you feel and think something different every track.

To be so experimental on a debut album says a lot about SYML as an artist. I enjoyed how no two songs felt the same, SYML was able to explore with different instruments and beats, allowing tracks every track to give off a different unique vibe. He created with no barriers, and that is what I admired most about this album.

Pressing play on the first song off the album ‘Clean Eyes’, I was shocked because I’ve listened to this track a thousand times prior and this album version threw the acoustic one out of the water. The acoustic version makes me want to wrap myself in bed and cry but now, this song makes me want to drive, windows down, in my beat-up old Honda Civic, singing from the top of my lungs wanting to get my heart broken.

‘Wildfire’ empowered me. I felt like he wrote this song for all of us who feel like giving up on ourselves and telling us that he has faith in us that everything will be okay. I found this track most beautiful, because it was a letter to whoever is listening and reaching out to them to tell them “you got this”.

A recurring theme in the album is heartache. SYML’s voice with the help of low beats and a guitar or piano instrumental makes for great tracks like ‘Where is my love?’ ‘Bed’ ‘WDWGILY’ and ‘Everything All at Once’. One of his most recognizable songs is ‘Where is my love?’ that was featured on MTV’S Teen Wolf in season 5 that became one of SYML’s earliest hits.

What attracts me most to this artist is his lyrical power by using a lot of symbolism, especially through his songs ‘The bird’, which also happens to have an amazing music video out now, ‘Girl’ and ‘Break Free’. These three tracks all talk about something different; ‘Girl’ is a song to his daughter. ‘Break Free’ is about today’s political climate and how he believes we need change.

Overall, this debut album by Brian Fennell, better known by his stage name SYML, spoke volumes of the amount of talent he truly has. Songwriting, producing, and singing; he can do it all and has proven he can do one hell of a job at it.