A few things have happened since we last checked in on her, like having the biggest debut record for a female R&B artist in over a decade…
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Kylo Nocom: A video of Summer Walker doing an NPR Tiny Desk Concert semi-blew-up recently on Twitter, making her the representative of a new wave of, apparently, lazy-ass R&B singers. The more popular tweet was a rebuttal: “she wanna go HOME. SHE HATE IT HERE.” I don’t mind her nonchalance; I find Summer Walker’s music to be relatable in the way that vocalists like Jhené Aiko and SZA before her have been, stoner R&B to clean the house to. “Playing Games” is a bit sedate in its production, yet Walker’s extensive and impressive vocal exercises (“is you really ’bout that action?”) within the verses prove her worth. Really, if you had to criticize somebody for being lazy here, it’d be Bryson Tiller, whose voicemail-recorded contribution is just grossly squeezed out over the existing outro. It’s a section that already feels like an awkward skit on the album; why release it as the single?
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Michael Hong: By slowing down “Say My Name” and smoothing it out, Summer Walker brings her source material into the present. “Playing Games” may lack the energy of “Say My Name,” but Walker’s much more biting, and the disconnect in her voice suggests Walker’s over it before Tiller’s even arrived.
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Ashley Bardhan: It’s really difficult for me to resist a “Say My Name” interpolation, but Summer Walker doesn’t even need this evocative ’90s callback to make this track the sensitive thing that it is. This is the song that plays in the teen movie of your life when you feel too bad about yourself to stay at the party. Walker and Bryson Tiller deliver moody, drowsy vocals, but the effect isn’t boring — it places you in their tired tug-of-war where “I’m just tryna match your words with your actions.” Stay at the party and sit in someone else’s cloud of smoke. Don’t listen when he says he’s “never actin’ shady.” Dance alone.
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Tobi Tella: Summer Walker’s second album is bigger and more confident than ever, and this is a perfect example. It’s more outward and brash then what I was used to, but it works perfectly for the type of R&B she’s going for. Bryson Tiller exists.
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Iain Mew: A contender in a contest for most extraneous guest verse ever. There’s barely enough narrative and melody to go round as it is, even before the addition.
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Nortey Dowuona: A sickly sweet guitar melody is poured into the hurdling piano synths and lumbering bass. Screen doors with clipping drums close them as Summer and Bryson painfully hash out the relations between them in a thunderstorm.
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Katherine St Asaph: In sound and theme, “Say My Name” for those who’ve resigned themselves to that never happening: a less effervescent take by nature, not too far removed from Jhené Aiko, honestly not removed either from the overarching trend of sad covers of pop songs, but sometimes a mood.
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Alfred Soto: The space and use of plucked instruments recalls early ’00s R&B: “Playing Games” would’ve worked as a country track. Singing with a star’s confidence, Summer Walker ain’t got no bullshit.
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