Love Sick (album)

On April 3, 2022, Toliver cryptically revealed the album's title through a tweet.^[2] In an interview with GQ in September 2022, he described the genres of the album as "futuristic R&B and soul" and confirmed that his girlfriend, Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis would make a guest appearance on it.^[3]

In early 2023, Toliver continued teasing the album by posting a story on Instagram that shows a picture of a whiteboard with the album's title written on it.^[4] He revealed its release date and cover art on February 17, 2023, followed by the tracklist and featured artists being revealed six days later.^[5] On February 24, 2023, the same day that the album was released, Toliver confirmed that a deluxe edition would be released soon along with a teaser video that played a snippet of the song "Embarrassed", which features his Cactus Jack Records label boss, fellow American rapper and singer Travis Scott. Three days later, his engineer, 206Derek, confirmed that it would be released the following day.^[6]

Singles

Toliver released the lead single of the album, "Do It Right", on November 18, 2022.^[7]

On February 15, 2023, he released the second single, "4 Me", which features Kali Uchis.^[8] Two days later, he released the third single, "Leave the Club", which features fellow American rappers Lil Durk and GloRilla, and also revealed its release date and cover art.^[9] The fourth single of the album, "Private Landing", which features Canadian singer Justin Bieber and fellow American rapper Future, was sent to rhythmic contemporary radio on March 14, 2023.^[10]

The fifth and final single of the album, "No Pole", which only appears on its deluxe edition, was sent to rhythmic contemporary radio on February 12, 2025.^[11]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Love Sick received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 from 5 critic scores.

Clash's Robin Murray felt that Love Sick "often thrills when Don is left on his own" and that Don uses "flows that blur the lines between rap and R&B", concluding that "amid the glitz, the hype, the online intrusion, Don Toliver still locates a space to call his own – and that's what makes 'Love Sick' so thrilling."^[14] Clayton Purdon of Rolling Stone wrote that the album felt superficial, stating: "it's worth considering his superficiality more of a feature than a bug. He's developed a reputation as a sort of Diet Travis [Scott] due to the artists’ close association, but there are worse things to be than reliable."^[17] Writing for HipHopDX, Precious Fondren concluded that "the Houston native takes a stab at what most other rap acts are avoiding right now: sing- rapping about love and all the emotions that come with it – trust, betrayal, and letting go. Unlike past work, Toliver attempts to expand his repertoire of content by diving a little deeper beneath the surface. Even with help from his in real life girlfriend [Kali] Uchis, Justin Bieber, Future, and Wilson, the LP comes up short in delivering songs that standout amongst his peers".^[15]

Love Sick debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 40,500 album-equivalent units (including 1,000 copies in pure album sales) in its first week.^[1] The album also accumulated a total of 51.23 million on-demand streams of the album's songs.^[1]

Summarize Fact Check

Sample credits

• "4 Me" contains samples from "Girls Dem Sugar", written by Moses Davis, Pharrell Williams, Charles Hugo, and Cleveland Browne, as performed by Beenie Man.
• "Go Down" contains samples from "Backseat", written by Domonic Patten, as performed by TisaKorean.
• "Leather Coat" contains an interpolation from "All Around the World", written by Lisa Stansfield, Andrew Morris, and Ian Devaney, as performed by Stansfield.
• "Do It Right" contains interpolations from "Take Your Time (Do It Right)", written by Harold Clayton, Malcolm Perry, and Sigidi Abdullah, as performed by the S.O.S. Band.
• "If I Had" contains samples from "Do You Love Her Now", written and performed by Jai Paul.
• "Bus Stop" contains samples from "I Can't Get You (Out of My Mind)", written by Edward Riley, Eric Williams, Grover Washington, Jr., Clifton Lighty, James Simmons, and Wesley Hogges, as performed by Blackstreet.

Performers

• Don Toliver – vocals
• James Blake – vocals (2)
• Lil Durk – vocals (3)
• GloRilla – vocals (3)
• Kali Uchis – vocals (4)
• TisaKorean – vocals (5)
• Justin Bieber – vocals (9)
• Future – vocals (9)
• Wizkid – vocals (10)
• Charlie Wilson – vocals (12)
• Brent Faiyaz – vocals (14)
• Toro y Moi – vocals (15)

Technical

• Joe LaPorta – mastering
• Derek "206derek" Anderson – mixing, engineering
• Jaycen Joshua – mixing
• Austin Jux Chandler – engineering (4)
• Ryan Mellow – engineering (9)
• Leandro "Dro" Higaldo – engineering (10)
• Jimmy Cash – engineering (13)
• Damon Riggins Jr. – mixing assistance
• Jacob Richards – mixing assistance
• Mike Seaberg – mixing assistance
• Rachael Blum – mixing assistance
• Jonathan Lopez – engineering assistance (1, 3, 10, 15)
• Hayden Duncan – engineering assistance (2)
• Dominic Vicario – engineering assistance (9)
• Justin "Jusvibes" Gibson – additional vocal recording (3)
• Eric Manco – additional vocals recording (9)
• Josh Gudwin – additional vocal recording (9)
• Itai Schwartz – additional vocal recording (14)