CD Review: Chloe x Halle – “Ungodly Hour” (2020)

In the modern age, nothing has become clearer than the need for a family member to lean on. After all, the loneliness that many are feeling from COVID-19 mixed with the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests have all created reason to question our mortality, making us understand the value of life as many are tragically taken away too young. With so much horror in the world, it feels like a good time to know that there’s somebody out there who will have your back, able to talk you through personal anxieties, and hopefully get out of this whole year in one piece.

Then again, it would be even better if we all had sisters as talented as Chloe and Halle Bailey, who together make up the R&B group Chloe x Halle. Over the course of their career, they have starred in movies like The Fighting Temptations (2003) and Let It Shine (2012). They also did a cover of Beyoncé’s “Pretty Hurts” on their YouTube channel that launched their careers. Not only that, but they got a record contract on Beyoncé’s own record label Parkwood Records. If anything was an endorsement of their quality, it was the acceptance from one of the most revered pop stars of the century.

Of course, it helped that they had incredible gifts other than singing. Their harmonies are transcendent, finding the beauty in choir arrangements that harmonize with more traditional pop sounds. They also are gifted musicians, playing all of their own instruments that helped to make them even more of a threat in the industry, which helped to make their 2018 debut album “The Kids Are Alright” a two-time Grammy-nominated achievement. 

While they remain a minor success in the pop world, it does feel like “Ungodly Hour” is an album that is promising to shift how the world will see them. With their first single “Do It,” they helped to launch a Tik Tok dance and became their most successful song to date. It does seem likely that this is only the start of greater things, if just because what follows is a mature sound that finds these catchy melodies tackling everything that has to do with Chloe x Halle’s personal identity in 2020, where they are finally accepting them for themselves in such a way that it shines through every note, allowing the audience to dance along with every moment.

The opening song serves as a mission statement for everything that’s about to follow. For two girls obsessed with a social life, there is something telling about dealing with something that is holding them back. After the angelic voices on the instrumental “Intro,” things begin to get interesting as the pop kicks in Halle and Chloe singing with agile energy, there is a sense that what follows will be a change:

So forgive me, forgive me

I been goin' too hard in your city

So forgive me 'cause I'm not teary

Best believe I'll move onto better things

While the context is more geared towards a conventional romance gone wrong, where they’ve “read the messages” and are mad about the lack of loyalty, there is this sense that everything is going to be opened up. As much as this is a break-up song, it’s one that firmly kicks the bad energy out of the room with the hope of finding something better out on the dating scene. Admittedly the timing of something this assertive seems silly, but it captures rumbling loneliness in everyone at this time, eager to return to something resembling a normal life.

Along with the female empowerment song “Baby Girl,” the first major single officiates the fun with a song that promises to bring out personal time to have fun:

I'm just with the crew

We ain't out here lookin' for boo

'Cause some nights be better with you

It's a homies-only kind of mood

And tonight we on a hundred

One hundred

No drama, no baby mamas, keepin' it cute

Chloe x Halle have the spirit of late-90s Destiny’s Child, managing to make girl’s time into these fun anthems that you want to dance to. It helps that their vocals have a nice texture, harmonizing over catchy pop beats that have this way of propelling the beat without much of a deeper need for the melody to keep up. It shows how durable they are as singers, capable of finding this sensuality and optimism in this upbeat song that reflects the group at their best.

Of course, the whole record is its own journey through the social lifestyle. Whereas “Forgive Me” begins the album with shedding excess baggage, by “Do It” and “Tipsy,” it feels like the night is starting to get heated, where the drinks are starting to be poured more freely, and the joy has fallen into this hazy blur of excitement. 

Then there’s the shifting point when the blur begins to give way to new and passionate emotions. With “Ungodly Hour,” the album begins to have a different depth. In interviews, Chloe x Halle have suggested that they named the album after this song as a reflection of the current moment. It wasn’t just the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the Black Lives Matter protests (which delayed this album’s release), which made the world seem like a dangerous place. It’s fair to suggest that this is the ungodly hour, and there is a need to atone for everything and make sense of whatever will come next.

It also adds a vulnerability to this song that may not be immediately obvious in the lyrics. Whereas most of these songs reflect a longing for love and respect, this song has the most forthright exploration of the subject. It’s about more than someone loving you at the end of a raucous party. It’s the need to be loved in times darker and scarier than that:

Love me at the ungodly hour

When you decide you like yourself (Holler at me)

When you decide you need someone (Call up on me)

When you don't have to think about it

Love me at the ungodly hour

It’s an adult way of dealing with romance, or at least finding that it’s not healthy to think that one person can change your perspective of love. It’s a mutual challenge, and the choice to admit equal responsibility is an endearing way to show that you can’t love others without loving yourself. There is power in every note, making you feel like Chloe x Halle are pulling you close, feeling at peace that while things are getting ungodly, they at least have you to fall back on.

As things progress, it becomes more of an endearing look at romance. The next song “Busy Boy” follows in the vein of “Tipsy” by reflecting how great it is to have men in your life. They play coyly with adult language, alluding to pictures that they’ve sent, and doing everything to enjoy the company of each other. 

The rest of the album plays like something more intimate that comes with a relationship. As much as the first half was about going out with independence, there is a mental health element to the back half, such as in songs like “Overwhelmed” and “Lonely” that take an opportunity to show that while they’re excitable people, they need to have these moments alone, realizing that it’s inescapable. They wonder:

Who are you when no one's watchin'?

You close the door to your apartment

Are you afraid of the silence?

Are you afraid of what you'll find in it?

Three in the morning, stayed up

Feels like the world don't fade up

Oh, in your mind, it's made up

It’s a feeling that anyone in a relationship has known, where the nights away lead to a train of thoughts, and this is one of those affirming songs that the distance doesn’t have to be lonely. There is a connection that escapes being in the same room together. It’s more intimate, stripped-down compared to the other songs, creating this tenderness that Chloe x Halle will text you at the right moment to make you feel better. They sing “It don’t have to be lonely being alone,” an from the way that they sing, you begin to believe them.

Then a different form of loneliness comes in “Wonder What She Thinks of Me” when they sing about an affair that they’re not present for. There’s concern over how the traces of identity that they gave their boyfriend will be to this mistress. What will she think of those smells? There is a concerted effort to sympathize with this woman, at least in the vague sense that there is a curiosity about how she sees Chloe x Halle, who they probably will never meet. It’s as much how he spins the story as their own gifts, making a mature look at something that can be read as petty and tragic.

The final song is easily the most enjoyable with “ROYL,” which fits in trap beats and a dance craze that feels like rejuvenation after long periods of self-reflection. For an album so full of emotional weight, it’s nice to leave the audience on a high note, giving them that one last jam to make everything feel like it will be okay. After all, they are royal and they need to accept them for themselves. There’s no other way about it.

The album manages to transcend R&B with fun pop elements in such a way that the typical love song has an intimacy and depth that works. They are confident in their delivery, managing to make their harmonies and use of choir feel elevating even spiritual, as they grapple with these emotions that are rooted deep inside of them. These feelings are universal, and yet we all need them in the ungodly hour, to allow us to know that everything will be okay.

Though don’t worry about them. Odds are that they will be doing their third tour with Beyoncé when things start back up. If not that, then they’ll pass the time making each of their songs into fun Tik Tok dances that will make passing the time easier. Oh yeah, and Halle is going to be Ariel in the new version of The Little Mermaid (1989), which should be pretty good. If you needed a reason to believe that they have a good pick for this movie, give this album a listen and you’ll see with strong conviction why this could be another fulfilling achievement in their young career.