Clear 2: Soft Life

by Summer Walker

Overview

Whereas Clear was a four-track EP released only three months after Over It, this sequel is over twice the length of the original and was issued with Summer Walker's third album around the corner. Like the 2019 EP, this one is based on live instrumentation with Walker similarly at her rawest lyrically and vocally, unbothered by commercial reception. That approach plays to her strengths as a perceptive and pensive writer whose voice should never be obscured. When she is backed by more than a plaintive guitar, nothing gets in her way, and yet it's all stimulating -- the drums a little too nuanced to qualify as basic time-keeping, the basslines melodic and unobtrusive, the keyboards gently touched. Two of Walker's most quietly powerful songs are among the highlights. Setting the mood of the EP is the bleary if resolute "Hardlife," where she castigates an ineffectual ex while singing in support of all Black women not getting what they need from their men. "Agayu's Revelation," a collaboration with Solange, John Carroll Kirby, and Steve Lacy, comes off like an informal monologue but has as much to offer as any of Walker's richest songs. Not all is deeply serious -- "New Type" with Childish Gambino is a quarrelsome duet full of spite and wit. ~ Andy Kellman

Product Details

Release Date:	05/26/2023
Label:	Interscope / Universal
UPC:	0602455684103

Tracks

1. To Summer, From Cole - Audio Hug
2. Hardlife
3. How Does It Feel
4. Mind Yo Mouth
5. Pull Up
6. New Type
7. Finding Peace
8. Set Up (2017)
9. Agayu's Revelation

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Summer Walker   Primary Artist
Childish Gambino   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
J. Cole   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Jah Whittingham   Guitar
Slimwav   Synthesizer
Darnell Stoxstell   Bass
Tim Maxey   Keyboards
Remey Williams   Drums
Tauseef Anam   Drums
Larry Lambert   Piano
Tarron Crayton   Guitar
Trey Lander   Bass
Cody Matlock   Guitar

Technical Credits

Noah McCorkle   Mastering Engineer,Assistant Mastering Engineer
Jah Whittingham   Composer,Producer
Duevon Hughes Desir   Mixing Assistant
Bryce Lane   A&R Assistance
Slimwav   Producer
Kabo Otto Morebodi   Composer
Que Soul   Producer
Quentin Sparks   Composer
Steve Lacy   Producer,Composer
Tim Glover   A&R
Justice Baiden   A&R
Summer Walker   Composer
Darnell Stoxstell   Composer,Producer
Tim Maxey   Composer,Producer
Solange   Composer
Kelvin Wooten   Composer
John Kirby   Composer,Producer
J. Cole   Producer
Katie Harvey   Mastering Engineer,Assistant Mastering Engineer
Dale Becker   Mastering Engineer
Childish Gambino   Composer
Jermaine Cole   Composer
Tauseef Anam   Composer,Producer
Wu10   Producer
Taylor Hill   Composer
Solange Knowles   Producer
Larry Lambert   Composer,Producer
Tommy Brown   Producer
Tarron Crayton   Composer
Charles Anderson   Composer,Producer
Thomas Brown   Composer
Rommel Villanueva   Recording
Jerome Monroe Jr.   Composer
Remey Williams   Composer,Producer
Alyssa Bautista   A&R Assistance
Simon Jonasson   Composer,Producer
Jahlil Gunter   Composer
Jay Versace   Producer
Trey Lander   Composer,Producer
Solo Otto   Producer
Cody Matlock   Composer,Producer
David Bishop   Mixing,Composer,Recording
Brittney Orinda   Recording
John Smythe   Composer,Producer