On 2022’s Broken Heart’s Club, Syd began to explore beyond the borders of the trappy, hip-hop inflected R&B sound that established the Grammy award winning singer-songwriter as one of her generation’s most singular musical voices. The retro-synthwave of “Fast Car” and Y2K vibes of “Right Track” delved into a pop sensibility that Syd has flirted with on the peripheries. She is, after all, the brain behind Beyonce’s Renaissance fan-favourite “Plastic On The Sofa” and The Internet, her former band whose sound leaned close to slinky, 90’s era pop-R&B. Syd has always had a sharp instinct for melody and hooks, though her solo projects have been utilised as opportunities to explore the more niche potential of her songwriting.
That makes “Callin” somewhat of a departure and return. The lead single from her upcoming album, Beard, strikes the balance between those two sides of Syd. On one hand, the song is a series of hooks that wouldn’t feel out of place for an Ariana or a Rihanna, a string of ear-worm melodies and easy-breezy lyrics that will find space to live in your head rent free. Then, on the other — Syd delivers these with a decent amount of oddness. Her voice is filtered and layered on the verses to sound ever so slightly disaffected. She’s nearly indistinguishable from Blu June’s pre-chorus confessions, “I’ve been drinking… I’ve been smoking,” before everything is peeled back for a chorus where the rawness of Syd’s vocals juxtapose the gloss of everything else around it.
Beard, co-produced by Syd, and featuring friends and collaborators by the likes of Raphael Saadiq, Big Sean, Rodney Jerkins, James Fauntleroy, Van Hunt, Blu June, and Jordan Ward, is a true coming-of-age album that documents the R&B innovator’s evolution as an artist and as a human, promising to be Syd’s most impressive, evolved work to date.
“Beard is a coming of age album for me. It’s a snapshot of what my life looks like right now,” Syd says. “The title was inspired by the peach fuzz on my upper lip that society has always taught me to hate. I fell in love with my peach fuzz and it made me rethink everything that was supposed to make me feel insecure. The title also represents the way I see myself in relation to my peers, especially in music. ‘The bearded lady.’ Not so much a spectacle in my case, but an anomaly and an outlier. Hard to compare. I’m owning that too. Taking things that were once insecurities and flipping them on their head has been extremely empowering.”
Beard is out July 17, 2026 via Free Lunch/Warner Records.
