Hi, everyone. Mustard!!!!!!! here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Dijon album, Baby.

Songwriter, producer, singer, Dijon. A musician whose profile and visibility has been building steadily for a handful of years now, though he is not entirely a new face. You can rewind and find some pretty obscure music projects and albums that he had a hand in dating back deep into the 2010s, but maybe even more formative were supportive but key roles he played in music that he made with artists like Brockhampton and Charlie XCX.

So yeah, Dijon has been active for years now, but he wouldn't really start shining as a solo artist until the 2020s, which is when he put out his first proper solo effort, Absolutely. That was back in 2021, and this album release coincided with the drop of a performance film, which showed Dijon to be not just this guy who came through with these creative fusions of alternative R&B and neo-soul and bedroom pop, but also a passionate performer who, half the time in this visual, looked like he was channeling spirits and just losing his mind.

As a result of all this, Dijon quickly became, in the eyes of many, a very hot and must-watch artist. He's been taking the development of his career in his next album here pretty slowly since then, and reveling in many successes along the way. With some killer live shows, a memorable Jimmy Fallon performance appearance, a Barack Obama playlist nod, a feature on the latest Bon Iver project, and most recently, many feature writer and producer credits on the new Justin Bieber Swag album – a record whose sound and style overall is just so indebted to not just Dijon's sound, but also that of his closest and most significant musical collaborator, Michael Gordon, AKA Mk.gee.

You could say what you want about Dijon's purposefully left field and sloppy presentation with his instrumentation, but one of the biggest pop stars in the world heard what his music had to offer and instantly locked in and wanted to copy that and bring him in on the process, which is pretty crazy. Not to mention that this new LP here is being dropped along with Warner Brothers Records, which is clearly a pretty big step up from just doing things independent.

But yeah, there have been a lot of exciting things in the lead up to this new album. That is except for teasers, singles. There were no singles to speak of before this album, which is fine because honestly, even without having heard any of these tracks prior, it was one of my most anticipated albums of this year. I would say for the most part, it lived up to my expectations and was absolutely worth waiting for. I think Dijon here made a record that is very much on par with his last, and he did so without necessarily cleaning up his sound too much or making it have more of a commercial appeal than it needed to have. Because the songwriting and the layers and the instrumentals on this LP are definitely brighter and punchier than they were on Absolutely.

But by that same token, Baby feels like every bit as much of a vibe because while there absolutely are quite a few highlights to be had in this tracklist, very few songs feel so singular that you could snip them out of the context of the record and they would sound just as significant and powerful. Because this project really does feel like a tapestry of different rough ideas and motifs sometimes, or maybe like an all-encompassing performance art piece, a la Frank Ocean Endless. But with a twist of D'Angelo and the Vanguard weirdo neo soul, and some flashes of late '80s, early '90s Michael Jackson as well.

But the common thread through all of these ideas and sounds and influences continues to be like that very specific brand of Dijon madness that leaves a lot of these ideas sounding very disheveled and explosive and a little unhinged. Think a track like "Referee", which in the grander scheme of the tracklist is just an interlude. But I can't really think of anybody else at Dijon's level of popularity who's really giving us these distorted, grimy hits of percussion while he gives us these very intense soul-inspired vocal howls, because that combination of chaos and also beauty is really where a lot of Dijon's appeal comes from.

That dynamic is made pretty clear by the opening title track, "Baby", which is a lovely tone setter and story, as Dijon sings in a way to where it sounds like you're hearing the point of view of a father to his child, describing the love and relationship between him and that child's mother that eventually led to that child being born. The whole thing is sung very affectionately over these very lofi guitars and drums, with the occasional dodgy and ghostly vocal or electronic glitch and embellishment.

Again, the end result is simultaneously pretty, but also disorienting in parts as well. For as chill as this song sounds a majority of the time, it never fully feels settled or complete. Like there's still a lot of bits of meat missing from the skeleton or gaps to fill in. But the more I listen to a track like this, the clearer it becomes like that demo type quality is so, so intentional as each detail feels like so methodically placed or at the very least, gone over afterwards and left in or taken out, depending on what quality it adds to the song.

This track is followed up by the even more vibrant and catchy "Another Baby", which brings some of those very big Michael Jackson vibes that I was talking about earlier. And yeah, all that comes through on the instrumental flourishes, the vocal inflections, and there's a vaguely 80 sheen to all the instrumentation on the track, too. But as sweet and as accessible as this song is, I also love just how chaotic and mysterious it all sounds. There's something uncanny about all of it, or maybe even hypnagogic, as some would say, with its weird, nostalgic vibe.

But no matter how many weird effects or touches and layers of muck and odd mixing, Dijon may subject some of these songs to, his fiery vocals and infectious melodies tend to cut through the noise, which is also the case on "Higher". I also love the chaotic transition that the song "Freak It" provides as we move into a aggressive and explosive midpoint for the album.

"Yamaha", for example, brings in so many layers of glossy keys and vocal harmonies that it's just a maximal anthem. Then after this, we have the even louder and shorter "Fire" as well as the "Referee" interlude I was talking about earlier. And while these two tracks definitely provide some eventful moments for the tracklist on this project overall, I maybe would have still preferred the songwriting on each of them to be a bit more developed, which I think is even more so the case for the track "Rewind", which while I do appreciate a slow, progressive build on lots of different songs, I do question whether or not finishing things in such a grating way is helping this tune overall.

I'm even more perplexed, though, by the strange vocal inflections and occasional scratches that pepper a lot of the song "My Man", which I really do think prevent the song from finding its footing at any point as Dijon's singing and again, screaming really drowns out a majority of everything happening in the mix to the point where I can barely make out the chords and phrasing the keys are doing much of the time, much less the skeletal percussion further back behind that.

At least the album ends pretty starting with the song "Automatic", which to my ears, out of the entire track list, has the biggest single potential, as the track is just pure pop bliss with these really heavy, intense hits and samples from what I guess is like a RZA and ODB freestyle, peppering much of the track. Again, despite those horn and drum hits being so loud, they fit into the song itself really well and provide just a very attention-growing grabbing backbone for what would otherwise be a beautiful but still very mellow song.

Then after this, we have a very endearing and dreamy finisher that is all about the love that Dijon wishes to have in his life and experience. It's a really beautiful way to end things off overall.

Once again, I am walking away from a Dijon project, mostly very impressed, loving a lot of highlights and deep cuts, but still just feeling like there was at least a bit of lost potential there, as I do think the momentum and songwriting quality on the album does take a dip around the midpoint, and it does take a while to pick up once again.

But still, with all that being said, Dijon continues to be one of the most unique voices and producers in modern bedroom pop, neo-soul, RnB. Honestly, it's even hard to label him as those three things or any things, frankly, because he embodies so many different stylistic influences in his music and blends them so seamlessly that you can't place him into one lane. I mean, a lot of his influences are pretty clear. He's the artist who I think wears the stuff that inspires him on his sleeve. But his sound and style are certainly not indebted to any one, two, or three artists. The guy has a very versatile palate for sure.

But yeah, I just think some of his songcraft and song focus could use a bit more retooling here and there. But outside of that, very respectable follow-up record that for sure I foresee grabbing just as much attention as his debut, which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 on it. A

nthony Fantano, Dijon, Forever.