D4vd’s ‘Withered’ Is a Brokenhearted Bombshell

If you were to look up “bedroom troubadour” in the dictionary, you’d surely find a mugshot of a cocky d4vd. From his homespun BandLab setup to his TikTok tremors, the Houston viral-pop newbie has mastered the wounded-heart torch song. Just jump on Spotify, and you’ll find a myriad of tattered heart JPEGs serving as his pillowy singles’ cover art. Capacious, freewheeling hooks belie his angst-rattled, young-love motifs, making them mournful but explosive. Drawing from indie rock and avant-R&B, the 20-year-old garnered a big hit with 2022’s voracious “Romantic Homicide,” which reached Number 34 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. It can be awesome to co-inhabit d4vd’s intimate space — coming for the grit and staying for the hits!

Since his 2023 EPs Petal to Thorns and Lost Petals, d4vd has grown as a composer (not to mention a flower plucker) and interstitial vocalist. If you liked early standouts like “You and I,” you’ll love d4vd’s mature new direction, where glossier tunes and meatier moans make you ruminate and dance so much more. Withered, his emotive full-length debut is a bleeding heart bombshell, rebooting the “love-thirsty” concept with 14 intoxicating scorchers.

d4vd simply gushes it all out. Pent-up emotions, regrets, and bestial longings all burst forth in an expansive baritone whose confident quietism distinguishes him from other wispier alt-centric brooders like Daniel Caesar. “Sky,” one of Withered’s strongest bops, invokes “Don’t Panic”-era Coldplay, with a fusillade of pungent guitar and a tortured pre-chorus concluding that “I’m hanging over the edge.” There’s patience and craft expressed in the quiet vocal calisthenics — each word lands like an unforgettable hook — and the restful mood feels ripe for nestling in the grass, as d4vd does on the album cover, which itself recalls that famous stoned-on-the-lawn scene in The Doors movie. When he mutters, “I’m running out of time and breath and energy,” the palpable edge in his blurt is enough to get you high.

Possibly the brightest song about rejection since Ariana Grande’s “Honeymoon Avenue,” the pulsing “Friend Again” is a bona fide stadium filler. The beat – comprised of burpy bass and choice handclaps – is campy enough for CW Sundays, even as it pilots dark psychic space with dolorous lyrics like, “I should have been less bolder/She said I’m not the one.” In other words, girl dumps boy; now he doesn’t want to sit next to her during Karaoke night anymore. Whether you’re getting over a hurtful breakup or ensconced in a quick-tempered, unfriending fit on Facebook, you can relate.

Not everything is so immediately charming. While relatable enough, “Somewhere in the Middle” is middling, to be sure. Its baleful guitar and hackneyed vocals make the average doubts shared by everyone who has ever been in love seem generic. And as peerless as d4vd’s singing is on “Say It Back,” his dark-toned ramblings (“So now I hate you/And I hope it breaks you”) never surpass the helpless magnitude of 2023’s defiant “Notes From a Wrist.”But nothing can beat “Feel It”’s resilient bounce, wherein d4vd admits, “Baby, I’m healing/I don’t need anything anymore,” over contagious four-on-the-floor percussion. All told, Withered blossoms, heart-torn woes and all.