Do You Still Love Me?

the take

Oh shoot, a new Ella Mai album? Long overdue, if I must say so myself! But for real, I'm actually curious to see which route she goes after three-plus years in between full albums. This isn't a bad listen, but I kind of feel like something was missing after reaching the album's finish line. I already had a feeling that this would be an album where Ella Mai sings about her experiences with love more upfront, especially due to her relationship with Jayson Tatum. (Side note: I'm jealous of him, but that's irrelevant.) "Do You Still Love Me?" starts off strong with the opening two tracks, and then it just... mellows out, which is crazy for me to say. That's not exactly a bad thing, as Mustard provided the production on here like it's 2017 again that caters more to Ella's sound and shines exceptionally. And it's not like Ella's vocal performances are suffering at all; if anything, it's just as strong as ever. The problem is the execution of the songs and also partly the songwriting. There's nothing wrong with the decision Ella Mai made in terms of the lyrics, but after a while, I kind of got the feeling I was listening to the same song over and over again. Minor duds aside ("No Angels", "Tell Her"), it's a consistent album that's still good when it's all said and done, but there's not much else to its uniqueness. It is a great feeling to hear Ella become more vulnerable through her music, though.