Here’s something that, if you grew up watching The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and listening to DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s Summertime, is going to make you feel old: Willow Smith, Will Smith’s youngest child, is twenty years old. TWENTY. Seriously, where does the time go?

Willow – stylised all in capitals as WILLOW – released her new album Lately I Feel Everything this week, and it’s clear within the first few moments that she has come a long way from the child star who released Whip My Hair more than a decade ago. Interestingly, only the Black Eyed Peas (with The Time) stopped her from becoming the youngest ever musician to hit the top of the UK charts with that release.

Between Whip My Hair and Lately I Feel Everything WILLOW released a trio of albums (2015’s R&B rollercoaster Ardipithecus, and a soul-infused self-titled affair in 2019, sandwiching 2017’s The 1st), and also found time to star in a plethora of movies, including I Am Legend with her Dad. Still, though, there’s the feeling that with her new album, WILLOW is finally becoming the sort of Generation Z star she always seemed destined to become. 

Gaslight, featuring Travis Barker, is an early highlight, a crushing pop-punk behemoth that has more than an edge of surf punk to it, while don’t SAVE ME is a growling industrial-infused monster that sparks and burns out in less than two minutes. naive and Come Home mix up the tempo with slower, more purposeful brushstrokes, while XTRA feels like a signature tune in the making, and G R O W dials the pop punk influences up to their maximum.

In deviating from her back catalogue as markedly as it does, Lately I Feel Everything must have represented something of a gamble for WILLOW. Listening to the album though, it’s hard to argue against the fact that it’s one that seems to have paid off handsomely. 

Lately I Feel Everything tracklist:

1. t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l (featuring Travis Barker)
2. F**K You 
3. Gaslight (featuring Travis Barker)
4. don’t SAVE ME
5. naive
6. Lipstick
7. Come Home (featuring Ayla Tesler-Made)
8. 4ever
9. XTRA (featuring Tierra Whack)
10. G R O W (featuring Travis Barker)
11. ¡BREAKOUT! (featuring Cherry Glazerr)

Watch the official video for t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l (featuring Travis Barker) here.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.