Singer Syd releases third solo album "Beard," named for her wife's request

Syd released her third solo album, "Beard," setting thoughts of romantic commitment and professional achievement against gleaming R&B grooves that occasionally nod toward Afrobeats or bossa nova. The title, the 34-year-old singer told the Los Angeles Times, was inspired by her wife's request that she keep the peach fuzz on her upper lip. Syd, whose full name is Sydney Bennett, first emerged nearly two decades ago as a member of the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Odd Future. "Feeling more sure of myself than I ever have" is how she describes the album's mood.

"Beard" arrived the same day as bandmate Steve Lacy's "Oh Yeah?," as covered in Steve Lacy and Syd release solo albums on the same day; the two make up two-thirds of the Grammy-nominated soul group the Internet alongside Matt Martians. Syd said the band is "closer than we've probably ever been" and has been recording intermittently toward a new Internet LP, including a week last month at Martians' studio in rural Georgia, though she declined to share many details beyond confirming the group has avoided Auto-Tune so far. "I want nuance, I want texture, I want the lack of perfection," she said. "I'd rather mess up naturally than not mess up unnaturally."

Songs on "Beard" like "Closet" and "My Love" reflect recent changes in her life, including getting married last year, a decision she said was shaped in part by uncertainty over how long same-sex marriage will remain legal in the U.S. She also stopped drinking about two and a half years ago after noticing her drinking, while not heavy, had become a daily habit tied to boredom rather than any single rock-bottom moment. "I raw-dogged New Year's Eve, bro," she said of the holiday she picked to quit.

The album also marks a business turn: after fulfilling her contract with Columbia, Syd signed last year to Warner Records, where an old high school friend, Tim Hinshaw, runs a boutique label called Free Lunch. She recorded much of "Beard" between a home studio and one in North Hollywood owned by Raphael Saadiq, who plays bass and co-produced several tracks. "Syd is just looking for things in music that are breathing," Saadiq said. "She keeps developing, and she's not developing to be relevant. She's developed because she loves doing it." Other collaborators on the record include the duo Nova Wav, James Fauntleroy, Van Hunt, Rodney Jerkins, Big Sean and Jordan Ward.

Syd is also known for co-producing Beyoncé's Grammy-winning "Plastic Off the Sofa," but she said the credit didn't translate into a wave of outside production offers the way she expected. Instead, she said, it gave her something else: "the confidence to produce this album for myself."