Icon by Brent Faiyaz Album Review
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars by Savannah Simpson
Icon is Faiyaz’s third studio album and has been anticipated since its announcement over a year ago.
Originally, the album was scheduled to be released on September 19th, 2025, but it was delayed until its official release last Friday. Like many of Faiyaz’s other work, the album is R&B and according to Official Album Charts, Icon is expected to peak in the Top 20 next week, following other albums such as Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, and So Close to What by Tate McRae.
Despite the album’s runtime only just exceeding the 39-minute mark, Faiyaz does not disappoint. The opening track, White Noise is a hearty, almost cinematic track and is a smooth start to the album. The song features a lush string ensemble that somehow differs from Faiyaz’s usual sound yet is also completely on brand for him too. It’s the perfect introduction to such a long-awaited album and sets the standards high for the rest of the tracks.
Unlike Faiyaz’s usual toxic and manipulative lyricism seen in his older work. The emotion and light-heartedness of this album show evolution in not just his art, but in himself.
The intimately rhythmic track Wrong Faces is a very emotionally charged song. The relaxed production and beat behind it doesn’t take away from the very relatable message Faiyaz puts out.
The lyrics perfectly capture the ‘push and pull’ of being ready for forever, while the other person is still stuck in the temporary love phase, hence “looking for love in all the wrong places” repeated throughout the song.
Butterflies is yet another powerful and thought-provoking perspective on love and the effect it has on Faiyaz. It’s a yearning track and shows a vulnerable side of him we don’t get to see in other projects like Wasteland. It is a brief look behind Faiyaz’s mysterious and toxic persona and is raw without being drowned out by its usual R&B samples.
The album explores a wide range of experimental sounds, with some tracks such as Pure Fantasy and Four Seasons that are flawless in production and explore more of the emotional vulnerability that has become a recurring theme throughout the album. It’s authentic and leans into a more anxiety filled side of love that other artists are sometimes reluctant to tap into.
It’s no surprise for Faiyaz though, he has consistently put out projects with all kinds of perspectives that manage to perfectly fit in with his 90s R&B inspired aesthetics.
The short length of the album does not discredit the hard work and effort put into Icon, and it shows that you don’t need to have a 2-hour long album full of heartbreak ballads to make an excellent album.