Tenille Arts - to be honest
By Alli Patton
When candor attempts to shine through, it tends to get muffled under bold displays of superfluous pop and stumbling, albeit ambitious, lyricism.
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Tenille Arts - to be honest
Label: Dreamcatcher Artists
Producer: Ross Copperman, King Henry, Alex Kline, Jesse Frasure, Nathan Chapman,
Release Date: May 3, 2024
Tracklisting:
1. 'To Be Honest'
2. 'So Do I'
3. 'Wonder Woman'
4. 'Dying To Be Pretty'
5. 'Something I Can Cry To'
6. 'How Do You Sleep'
7. 'People Change'
8. 'Want Her Back'
9. 'Next Best Thing'
10. 'Call Me When You Get Home Friends'
11. 'Mama’s Eyes'
12. 'Summer Don’t Go'
13. Jealous of Myself” (feat. LeAnn Rimes)
14. 'Last Time Last' (feat. Maddie & Tae)
“Love ain’t supposed to be easy / It’s supposed to be honest,” Tenille Arts lilts on her latest album, to be honest, an effort that sees the artist striving for just that: honesty with her music, her fans, herself. The title track and the record’s opening tune immediately sets this tone, prepping listeners for some of the artist’s highest highs and lowest lows. However, there are moments along the way when to be honest comes off as anything but.
While Arts’ fourth studio release starts off with a track as gorgeously vulnerable as the bleary-eyed ‘So Do I’, that spark of inspiration quickly falters. Where the singer mines for the title’s desire, she sometimes strikes dulled clichés and palatable adages, songs like ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Dying To Be Pretty’ delivering like hollow husks of good intentions. Where that candor attempts to shine through, it tends to get muffled under bold displays of superfluous pop and stumbling, albeit ambitious, lyricism.
It’s also difficult to discern honesty in the collection’s many heartbroken ballads. The glaringly unoriginal ‘How Do You Sleep’ portrays a paint-by-numbers woman scorned, as does ‘Next Best Thing,’ an all-too-familiar diss track that plays more like a setback than a clapback.
That’s not to say there are not sincere moments. Among the album’s collection of breakup tunes, tender serenades and odes to the besties, there are plenty of highlights that peak through. The carefree, cry-in-the-club bop ‘Something I Can Cry To’ and the sweetly naive ‘Summer Don’t Go’ are among them. Even the cheesy, ‘80s-textured Maddie & Tae collaboration ‘Last Time Last’ is a nostalgia-fueled triumph. These surface-level songs stand out not because they pretend to be profound, but because they’re direct and relatable without having to jump through so many hoops.
It’s when Arts takes a step back and lets her songs simply be that the album accomplishes what it was created to. In the end, she was right. Love isn’t supposed to be easy, but honesty should be.
5/10.
Tenille Arts' 2024 album, 'to be honest', is released may 3 via Dreamcatcher Artists.
For more on Tenille Arts, see below:
