High Up The Wall

Anderson Paak “Smile/Petty”

“Smile/Petty” is structured like a diptych, with two distinct sections that nevertheless overlap in tone and sentiment. The first half is a rather D’Angelo-ish slow jam, and the second flips that soft funk into something more tense and aggressive. The lyrics don’t shift quite as dramatically. The song is always about a relationship that’s gone bad because neither half of the couple trusts the other, and the difference is mainly in how Anderson Paak’s tone goes from mildly aggrieved to outright confrontational. His voice, as always, is outstanding – rough and raspy, and able to shift seamlessly between R&B and rapped modes without ever making you focus much attention on how he switches it up. It all just flows together.

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