There’s no telling which Bilal you’ll get from one moment to the next—will it be the thoughtful singer who craves breakfast in bed or the bizarre performer who screams his way through Led Zeppelin and Radiohead covers? In the years following his debut, 2001’s 1st Born Second, Bilal has done everything to shed the neo-soul label with which he’s been associated. "I’m a jazz musician. That’s what I went to school for," he recently told Complex. "I want to make music that is going to confuse the computer." In hindsight, that explains the iconoclastic nature of 2010’s Airtight’s Revenge and 2013’s A Love Surreal, two albums that largely eschewed Bilal’s earlier throwback aesthetic for a denser electronic sound. Through it all, Bilal is at his best when he's disciplined: his version of "Can’t Hide Love" rivals the Earth, Wind & Fire original, and his feature work on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly bolstered the rapper’s coming-of-age narrative. Too often, though, Bilal’s solo music has been scattered and unfocused, making it tough to fully embrace.
In Another Life is produced by Adrian Younge, whose live instrumentation matches the singer’s raw energy. Younge has composed for rapper Ghostface Killah and Delfonics’ vocalist William Hart and is known for his modern interpretations of Shaft-era R&B. Where A Love Surreal dabbled in electronic soul, Life feels like a one-take jam session: Younge’s soundtrack evokes Sly Stone’s improvised funk and buffers Bilal’s ruminating ballads, and the LP falters when it strays from that sound: The bouncy, Big K.R.I.T.-assisted "Pleasure Toy" is out of step with Life’s organic vibe, and "Lunatic" is a shrill alt-rock number that Bilal screeches his way through. Elsewhere, the backing music acts as scenery for the singer’s best feature—the timbre of his voice. If Surreal was the Prince album Bilal always wanted to make, In Another Life seems influenced by To Pimp a Butterfly (Kendrick spits rapid-fire verses here on "Money Over Love") and D’Angelo’s Black Messiah, multifaceted works that celebrate blackness without conforming to what black art is perceived to be.
Life has an inquisitive spirit; as it plays, Bilal sounds like the ardent storyteller trying to figure things out along the way. He withdraws from Earth on "Satellites", assessing civic decay from an aerial perch: "Watching the world watch people as they do what they do to people/ So what did we do? And what can we do? And how did this happen?" On "Open Up the Door", Younge wields a '70s Stevie-like groove, and Bilal, like the Motown icon, uses seasonal imagery to convey human perseverance. "It’s a long, cold winter," he sings, "but when it rains, we grow." Younge and Bilal’s synergy takes shape toward the album’s back end, on "Holding It Back", "Spiraling", and "Bury Me Next to You", all three using similar rhythms to form a seamless suite. In Another Life is one of Bilal's better records; after many years and five albums (including the impressive and unreleased Love for Sale), perhaps he has finally found his niche. Who knows how long he’ll stay there.
