Brent Faiyaz released his new album, “Icon”, February 16, 2026. Faiyaz quickly reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 Albums charts, making this his second chart-topping album after his previous album “Wasteland.”
Faiyaz hasn’t done any press for this album, so it’s unsure what his influences are or his main inspiration(s). The album has had 45.7million official streams in its first week of debuting. This has been a very successful album for him so far.
Faiyaz rolls out his album with the first track called “White Noise,” which is the only instrumental song. The song has violins that fade into the song, and they echo in and out. They then begin to have a sharp soul rhythm to them that happens for a few seconds at the end of the song.
The next song to play is “wrong faces,” which is about searching for genuine connections and exploring emotions. Throughout this song the violins heard in “White Noise,” can also be heard in this song. This song also goes back and forth between in an argument with himself, trying to convey that he wants love.
The next two songs on the album are “have to,” and “butterflies,” These are the most popular on the album and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. They also became relevant on social media for a while. “have to,” has moody basslines and many layered harmonies. This song reminds of the song “Gravity” Faiyaz and Tyler, The Creator collaborated on, with the high pitch synthy vocals. “have to,” is the lead single of the album and has its own music video. “butterflies,” Captures the emotions of what it feels like to first fall in love. The lyrics express the new unexplainable anxiety that can come with love. “How do you feel?” “Is it anything like I feel?” said Faiyaz is something repeated throughout the song. Faiyaz also sings about the excitement he feels for something new.
The rest of the album has a very 80s feel through the synth and pitch. The song “other side.” really encapsulates this 80’s synthy keyboard and disco tone. The song has a Michael Jackson feel to it and is very upbeat.
This album showed Faiyaz and his new experimentation with music from the 80s synth to the disco feeling. In this album fans can hear Faiyaz’s confidence in his craft. “icon” shows Faiyaz’s growth as an artist and his comfortability in his music. I recommend this album to people who enjoy new music but also enjoy older or different genres of music. Overall, I really enjoyed this album and thought it was curated in the most perfect way possible
