I’ve often felt women can be especially astute to the effects of passing time, recognizing how it can put our journey toward self-knowledge at odds with our societal worth, which is too often rooted in perceived youthfulness. On “20 Something,” SZA stared down the end of her 20s plagued by the fear that she will lose what she loves most about her life as she ages. On “Life Is,” Jessica Pratt fought to free herself of the anxiety that she’s squandered her potential as time progresses. When dexter sings about her hair turning gray or her fear of wasting her life, she approaches this fraught conversation with honesty, curiosity, and vulnerability.
Given the gravity of the loss she’s processing on Time Flies, there’s a profound openness in dexter’s approach to romantic love, especially on album highlight “Special.” She mixes nostalgia for the warmth of ’00s R&B, the tenderness of PinkPantheress’ honeyed vocals, and earthy finger-picked guitarwork into a track that blossoms like a morning glory at dawn. She describes a budding relationship with a sense of optimism that turns to glowing reassurance, singing, “You’re mine in the morning, I need you like coffee/You’re mine in the evening, I need you like sleeping.” But she doesn’t just exalt the relationship uncritically. She also notices how intense emotion can veer into codependency: “I would give up so much in my life just so I could say you’re mine.” It’s a complex and dynamic track that makes space for the many emotional facets of new love.
The best songs on Time Flies pair poised, intentional production with lovestruck euphoria, and the others can’t help but feel lackluster by comparison. Acoustic guitar ballads like “By my side” and “With u” are pretty, but they feel somewhat interchangeable; the dubstep flutter on “Did you try” is distracting rather than additive. But the chorus of “Stranger to love” hits like the first warm day of spring. “I’m not romantic/But I can change if you like/I can’t deny the way I feel/When you look in my eyes,” she sings. It is often said that grief is love persisting, and you hear it in the depth of dexter’s yearning, the way she turns to God for reassurance, the extent to which she feels upstaged and stymied by loss. But love does more than persist on Time Flies; it grows and flourishes, pushing her to do the same.
