I’ve never been shy about my love for neo-soul and more, jazz-inflected R&B…heck, we already featured two artists in the best of 2024 series that have excelled at this kind of thing for a while now. Still, if you had told me a year ago that come December I’d be listening to the new album from Willow, the daughter of Mr. Jiggy himself, I’d probably laugh and move along. But here we with Empathogen, Willow Smith’s sixth album and return to her initial sound after two albums that stuck heavy to alternative pop/punk and rock. There’s a heavy emphasis on acoustic instruments and her voice, which is lovely whether it’s naked and bare or stacked in lush harmonies. I’m still slightly awed at how much this record speaks to me, and make no apologies for it when the end result sounds as good as this thing does.

She has some big help in the production and guest department, and it’s apparent she’s completely open to letting her guests shine right from the get go. Opening track “home” (yes, this is another artist/album that is very intentional in how its songs are spelled/capitalized) features Jon Batiste and it’s a gorgeous, skeletal work, stick hits and kick balanced against Willow’s harmonized pulses before Batiste’s piano lights across the soundstage. It’s soulful, funky, and jazzy, especially when the full orchestration kicks in. It’s a call that this is not simple pop for the masses; the music is central in a way that’s almost progressive: no wonder I first discovered this via a prog rock YouTube video. Speaking of guests, another big highlight comes later with St. Vincent’s appearance on “pain for fun” which belongs as much to her vocally as it does Willow.

From “home” Empathogen continues to shine musically just as much as it does vocally. “ancient girl” is very brief, a solo exercise of just classical guitar (played by Willow) and Willow stacking her vocals in a moving and nearly discordant way against the chords of the guitar before jumping into the incredible “symptom of life”. Alternating between 7/4 in the verses and 4/4 in the chorus, it’s a melodic marvel, so much so it even made the internet’s grouchy producer jump up and take notice. The way Willow divides the accents in the melody, especially in the chorus is an absolute stunner, and one of my favorite tracks of the year. There is so much going on in this song, there’s something new to notice with each listen.

A large part of Empathogen’s charms comes from the way Willow and her team blend different tones and modes into each other. The way “fear is not real” starts and ends is a completely different vibe with its acoustic guitar and martial drum cadence from the flowing, groovy disco funk of its middle section. “false self” harkens back to her more alt rock roots, and there are moments on “run!” that remind me of the Clash’s Combat Rock even as it also recalls 90s alternative and 00s R&B. Closer “b i g f e e l i n g s” could be Fiona Apple channeling early Erykah Badu, something I never knew I needed until I heard it.

If I have any complaint about the album, it’s very short: 12 twelve tracks in 32 minutes. Even the “deluxe” edition with the addition of three more songs (including a collaboration with Kamasi Washington) only adds an additional seven minutes of runtime. That’s right – the deluxe version of Empathogen is still under 40 minutes. Normally I’m the one to champion brevity in songwriting and rail against the bloat of CD length albums that simply pad out the capacity of the format, but so many of these tracks, wonderful and alive and vibrant as they are, still feel like the briefest of sketches. I would love to hear something like the torch of “down” or the stutter of “i know that face.” stretched and expanded out.

But that’s a small price to pay for an album that’s too busy stretching and expanding the notion of what modern pop music can be. I’ll take it.