Nate Sib arrives at a pivotal point in his career with Reborn, his debut album and first major release since the for us EP. It’s a title Sib has grounded in personal terms, describing the album as a story of addiction, redemption, and religious enlightenment. High expectations preceded its release, and standout singles “Let You Go” and “Face Card” delivered, capturing Sib’s sound in its most self-assured form yet.
Those same tracks open Reborn on a high note, setting a bar the rest of the tracklist struggles to meet. “Sexiest” and “Love Love” come next, and while they hold their own, they feel generic by comparison. “Problem” fares better, its 2hollis production cameo helping it stand out as one of Reborn’s few genuine earworms.
Across the album, Sib reaches for that mid-2010s pop sound, one clearly influenced by Justin Bieber’s Purpose, but few of those moments land, leaving most of the production feeling commercial and uninspired. “Shooting Star,” for example, might be Sib’s most boring song to date—it genuinely sounds like something The Chainsmokers would’ve scrapped.
Going mainstream was a reasonable direction for Sib, but on Reborn, we’re hearing the most diluted, commercialized version of his sound yet, a far cry from the unique music that built his name. Nowhere on the album does he actually experiment or step outside his comfort zone, which is especially frustrating considering for us, his last EP, pushed his artistry forward in every way.
Hyperpop is noticeably absent from the album, and nowhere is that felt more than in Kimj’s absence. He does contribute a production cameo on “All I Needed,” which includes Sib directly referencing his past fentanyl overdose. It’s a genuinely vulnerable moment and the album’s best ballad, but it still blends into the three tracks that follow: “It Ain’t Easy,” “Too,” and “Child of God.” For as emotionally heavy as these songs try to be, the production and lyrics stay surface-level, and none of it resolves by the album’s end.
Sib’s vocals, at least, are as phenomenal as ever, which makes it all the more disappointing that he chose to play it this safe. Too much of Reborn sounds indistinguishable from any other pop act out right now. The songwriting feels stuck in a loop, barely shifting from track to track, and almost every creative choice pulls the album further from what made him great in the first place. In the end, Reborn falls short of the moment it was supposed to be.
By Adair Mahan