Anderson .Paak’s Malibu was released in the first month of 2016. I was working at a music magazine during that time, something I’ve gone on about numerous times before, and I’d seen that Pitchfork had given it an 8.6 and a Best New Music tag. So I thought “It’s worth a shot.” Opened Spotify, pressed play, and…. I just had that feeling from when .Paak first starts singing on ‘The Bird’ that the album wasn’t going to disappoint. It’s always a bummer when you make a blog series like this and all this new music comes out. ‘The Bird’, ‘Heart Don’t Stand a Chance’, and ‘Come Down’ – all of my personal highlights from there. But today’s post is dedicated to ‘Lite Weight’, which comes in halfway through the record.

This track is a vibe and a half. Being where it is on the album, I get the feeling that a lot of people may not know as much about. It is a bit repetitive too; it’s only made up of the chorus and a small verse where the lyrics are always the same. But the vocals are silky smooth and good for the soul. There are some low-pitched vocal samples here and there and shouting ad-libs are thrown in the moments where no-one’s singing. Are these details important? Not very. I can never get over just how good this song sounds with some headphones on though. It’s beautiful stuff. The main message of the song is ‘there is no time to be lightweight.’ This could mean no time to be shy in life and being brave enough to make a name for yourself. Or it could be a drug reference somehow, I’m not too sure. It’s the only song whose beat is created by producer Kaytranada; it was a good sign whenever he and .Paak were both on a track, as would be made clear on their other collaborative effort ‘Glowed Up’ from Kaytra’s 99.9% album.

Anderson .Paak has continued to make some great music since 2016. I still think Malibu‘s his best album though. There are just so many musical ideas and twists and turns on there that make it a very adventurous listening experience.