Chlöe: In Pieces album review — a magnificently sung but uneven debut

In Pieces is a confounding mixture of the abbreviated, the ordinary and the very good. It’s the debut solo album from Chloe Bailey, who is better known as one half of the US duo Chloe x Halle with her sister, Halle Bailey. Mentored by Beyoncé, to whose label Parkwood Entertainment they are signed, the pair have gained plaudits and growing commercial success for their mostly self-penned, self-produced R&B. But Halle’s casting as Ariel in the forthcoming Disney remake of The Little Mermaid has stalled their momentum: hence Chlöe’s relaunch as a solo artist (now with added umlaut).

Her first single without Halle, 2021’s “Have Mercy”, was a throwaway affair with a lowest common denominator approach to basslines and bodies. She performed it well, but the song made scant use of her talents. It doesn’t appear on In Pieces. Rather than reduce her to the generic figure of bedroom siren or club nymph, the album opens up a wider repertoire of roles. (Like her sister, she has a side-career in acting, with credits including Donald Glover’s new television series Swarm.)

“Pray It Away” is an inventive blend of R&B and gospel in which the singer goes to church harbouring feelings of rage at a faithless lover. Accompanied by a choir of voices, she delivers a barnstorming lead vocal, juxtaposing secular and spiritual worlds with fluent runs between low and high registers. “Body Do” tells an insistent tale of physical attraction to another faithless man, but it comes to a sudden halt as though short-circuited by the complex situation.

Other short tracks give the album’s first half the jumpy feel of a versatile singer in search of an identity. A wrong turn comes with a dull duet with Chris Brown, “How Does It Feel”, which smothers his notoriety in routine R&B balladry. But the second half is high quality. Missy Elliott makes a charismatic appearance on the offbeat “Told Ya”, while Future turns up on the irresistible power ballad “Cheatback”, magnificently sung by a multi-tracked Chlöe. In Pieces provides partial evidence of the knockout album that’s waiting to be made by her.

★★★☆☆

‘In Pieces’ is released by Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia/RCA