Jaden Smith

Syre

MSFTS Music/Roc Nation

FIRST, forget that Syre isthe debut album from one of West Philly-born Will Smith’s kids,

Jaden: a young actor and singer-rapper in his own right who has recorded many a guest feature and mixtape long before this.

If you’re not paying attention to birthright (or his goofball videos that preceded the album’s release, yikes), Syre is a deliciously low-key, exquisitely eccentric — even cinematic — hip-hop nu-soul effort.

Half of Syre was co-produced by Norwegian songwriter Lido (Chance the Rapper, Halsey), and there’s a woozy electronic film to the proceedings, whether it’s the slow, filmic four-part suite B, L, U, E, (featuring haunting female vocals from sister Willow), or the rickety atmospheric rap of Breakfast featuring rough soul mouthpiece A$AP Rocky.

Whether on the Lido tracks or beyond — the spacey, low-slung Watch Me, the wonky, thumping Batman — Smith’s scattered lyrics are best rendered in his deepest, sing-songy manner.

His attempt at vocalising on the caramel jazzy Fallen is fine as wine, as his baritone register tickles an electric piano’s tinkling.

Then there are wrong songs, such as the third-rate K anye crib Watch Me (OK , he samples Yeezy’s Black Skinhead) and the miserably screechy Icon, which samples The Hi De Ho Man and finds Smith’s voice and lyrics in a dumb, too-high place.

Syre is good, not great, and certainly promising for the 19-year-old Smith. Just keep it low-down and deep. — A.D. Amorosi/The Philadelphia Inquirer/Tribune News Service