''The Anxiety'' is a collaborative studio album by American musicians

Willow Smith Willow Camille Reign Smith (born October 31, 2000), known mononymously as Willow (stylized in all caps), is an American singer and actress. The daughter of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, she has received various accolades, including ...

and Tyler Cole, under the band name The Anxiety. The project was released by the duo on March 13, 2020, by MSFTSMusic and

Roc Nation Roc Nation is an entertainment agency founded by Jay-Z in 2008. The company is headquartered in Manhattan and has additional offices in Los Angeles and London. Roc Nation comprises a comprehensive talent agency, sports agency, record label, mana ...

. While the album didn't chart at the time of its release it entered the charts in late 2021 after album track " Meet Me at Our Spot" became a

sleeper hit In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit is a film, television series, music release, video game, or some other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release but became a success later on. A sleeper hit may have little promo ...

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. It became Cole's first ever charting album and Willow's first charting album in Canada.

Background

Willow Smith and Tyler Cole have been romantic partners and artistic collaborators for several years. Prior to ''The Anxiety'', Cole co-produced her 2019 self-titled album. The band released their debut single "Hey You!" on February 28, 2020.

Art exhibit

In promotion of the project, Smith and Cole staged a

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

piece at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

on March 11, 2020, wherein the duo were locked in a glass box for 24 hours and were not allowed to speak to each other. One wall was clear for the audience to view, with the other three covered in canvas for the duo to write affirmations on. The performance is meant to convey the eight stages of anxiety (paranoia, rage, sadness, numbness, euphoria, strong interest, compassion and acceptance) with each stage lasting three hours. The performance was seen as topical due to it occurring just days before

COVID-19 lockdowns Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countrie ...

in the United States.

Composition

''The Anxiety'' is a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

, and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

album. The album's first half largely consists of "uptempo rhythms and punchy riffs", dabbles in

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

around the middle, and the second half contains "pensive R&B and drone-like

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s". Lyrically, the album tackles themes of anxiety, rage, panic attacks, and government corruption.

Track listing

Notes * signifies a co-producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anxiety 2020 debut albums Collaborative albums Willow Smith albums Roc Nation albums Alternative rock albums by American artists Indie rock albums by American artists Punk rock albums by American artists Dream pop albums by American artists Progressive rock albums by American artists