GIVĒON is an artist I’ve been excited to hear new music from after loving his compilation album from last year, When It’s All Said And Done… Take Time, which combined two of his EPs and added one more song at the end.

In September of last year, GIVĒON released “For Tonight”, the lead single from his debu studio album, Give Or Take. Earlier this year, before I started this website, I finished making a list of my top 100 favourite songs of last year, and this song wasn’t too far from making the list. It’s an amazing track with incredible vocals from GIVĒON, and I love the melodies on this track. I also love the double-meaning when he sings, ‘‘Cause all I wanna do is lie with you, even though it’s wrong to lie with you,’ right after mentioning denying the truth.

And while “For Tonight” remains my favourite track on Give Or Take, that’s not to say there aren’t other great tracks on this album, too. For example, “Another Heartbreak”, which I think is really interesting lyrically, as GIVĒON sings about being scared of a relationship because of the fear of it failing.

“july 16th” is a mellow track with some great pianos, and while it’s very short, lasting for under two minutes, it feels like a complete track, and a really good one, too.

“Remind Me” shows GIVĒON pointing out some of the flaws of his past self, and seeing these same flaws in somebody else, and he sings, ‘Is this karma calling?’

Now, there are a small handful of songs on this album that don’t really work for me, like “Get To You”, with the percussion that, in my opinion, sounds really awkward over the rest of the instrumental, with the kick drum sounding so overproduced, at least to me. And the melodies on this track don’t really click for me, either.

And then right after that track is “Tryna Be”, which is probably my least favourite song on the album. The only reason I find the melodies on this track at all catchy is because they’re so easy to remember due to feeling so repetitive and uninteresting, and the instrumental really bores me, too, with the synths that feel like they go nowhere, and the percussion that, in my opinion, sounds super generic and uninteresting.

The opener, “Let Me Go”, however, uses trap-like percussion really well in my opinion, over those synths, with GIVĒON’s amazing vocals … it’s a fantastic way to open the album. The repetitive vocal melodies work much better on this track in my opinion, and I love the intro and outro by GIVĒON’s mother on this track.

“This Will Do” shows GIVĒON having romantic feelings toward a fan at a show, but the fan only wanted to meet GIVĒON because of his music. And the second verse comes across a bit creepy when he says, ‘Take my hand, I’m in control’, but aside from that, this song is great! I love the melodies, and GIVĒON’s vocals are fantastic!

Overall, I think GIVĒON’s debut studio album is really, really good. GIVĒON is an amazing vocalist, and there are so many great melodies on this album, too.

There are a few tracks that I don’t like, but I like the majority of this album, and I’m giving it a strong 7.5/10. If you’re into mellow music with melodic vocals, I highly recommend that you listen to this. Great stuff!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Let Me Go”, “Scarred”, “This Will Do”, “july 16th”, “For Tonight”, “Lie Again”, “Another Heartbreak”, “At Least We Tried”, “Remind Me”, “Unholy Matrimony”
Least Favourite Tracks: “dec 11th”, “Get To You”, “Tryna Be”