Chlöe and Timbaland’s ‘Resurrection’ Is a Mutual Course Correction

Chlöe’s collaborative mixtape with Timbaland arrives as a regeneration project for both artists, though its title suggests something more declarative than what the music actually delivers. Out now via Parkwood/Columbia Records, ‘Resurrection’ pulls the Atlanta singer and the veteran producer back toward a common center after separate stretches of uneven solo work.

For Chlöe, the 12-track release follows two promising but patchy albums — 2023’s ‘In Pieces’ and last year’s ‘Trouble In Paradise.’ Her skills as a producer, which anchored Chloe x Halle’s excellent ‘Ungodly Hour,’ take a background role here as she leans into Timbaland’s instincts. For him, the project offers distance from a recent, widely questioned pivot into AI-based entertainment and a self-coined genre he called “A-pop.”

The mixtape doesn’t chase R&B futurism the way Timbaland’s turn-of-the-century output once did. Instead, it restores texture and motion to a mainstream strain of the genre that has grown listless. The slow-groove syncopation that once defined his productions reappears on single ‘Talking Dirty,’ a febrile exercise in innuendo-led erotica. ‘Hold It’ works better, pairing a whispered lead vocal with wordless ecstasies over beats that stutter and saunter — expertly modulated, stopping just short of ambient noise territory.

Chlöe’s writing carries emotional voltage, particularly when she’s operating in high-stakes melodrama. ‘World On Fire’ places entwined lovers against an apocalyptic backdrop over piano, while ‘Sensitive’ flips the script with harpsichord and atonal strings as she berates a needy paramour. The project finds its footing in defiance, a mode that suits her.

Timbaland injects necessary pop instinct into ‘Better Than She Can,’ a weightless future-disco cut. But the most promising gesture comes with closer ‘Jittery,’ an after-hours, footwork-inspired track built on harmonic stacking and spatial design. Chlöe has mentioned unreleased material that could fuel a follow-up. If the duo can move past memory and toward actual reinvention, that’s where it would happen.