A Forsaken Lover's Plea

A Forsaken Lover's Plea is a 2023 studio album by American rapper Chuck Strangers. It has received positive reviews from critics.

Reception
Online retailer Bandcamp chose this for Album of the Day, where critic Dylan Green praised the "greyscale approach" to Strangers' lyrics, where he "knows how to flex when he needs to—his love of money and faith come up often, and few rappers appreciate the value of a quality bottle of wine like him—but he mostly prefers to show the work it took to get there as plainly as possible" and stated that the "unfussed production" is to the listeners' benefit. At BrooklynVegan, Andrew Sacher covered this release several times: in a review of new music for the week, he praised this release by writing, "Chuck fills this album with eerie, minimal soundscapes and a quietly commanding lyrical style. Sometimes it sounds like the ’90s, other times it sounds like the future." This was also listed among the five best rap albums of March 2024 and among the 30 best albums of the first quarter of 2024.. At HipHopDX, Will Schube gave A Forsaken Lover&#39;s Plea a 3.8 out of 5, calling this concept album "a love letter to New York, a chronicle of the pain and ecstasy of a less-than-sturdy romance, and an ode to the wonders of Hip Hop itself", where Strangers "balances the personal with the cosmic, tracing his own relationships and how they reflect the wider world". In Mojo, Stevie Chick scored this album 4 out of 5 stars, characterizing the music: "having looted various quiet storm nuggets and Isaac Hayes soundtracks for strings, beats and vibes, Stranger’s soliloquies on love, drugs and hip-hop deliver a most compelling, modernist strain of the blues".

Track listing

 * 1) "Richard Pryor" – 0:29
 * 2) "Dead Vines" – 2:16
 * 3) "Close Calls" – 2:04
 * 4) "Sermonette" – 2:04
 * 5) "Ski’d Up" – 2:10
 * 6) "Too Afraid to Dance" – 2:13
 * 7) "A Forsaken Lover’s Plea" – 2:13
 * 8) "Sunset Park" – 2:14
 * 9) "Polish Jazz" – 3:01
 * 10) "Feelings" – 2:13
 * 11) "Crusaders" – 0:13
 * 12) "To All the Girls" – 0:56
 * 13) "Home" – 1:18
 * 14) "Ali’s Roti Shop" – 1:43
 * 15) "Grasp" – 3:44
 * 16) "Some Flatbush…" – 3:21
 * 17) "Count on My Love" – 1:49
 * 18) "Illegal" – 1:25

Personnel

 * Chuck Strangers – music, rapping, production on "Richard Pryor", "Dead Vines", "Sunset Park", "Feelings", "Crusaders", "To All the Girls", and "Count on My Love"
 * The Alchemist – rapping on "Ski’d Up", production on "Sermonette" and "Ski’d Up"
 * Animoss – production on "Too Afraid to Dance", "Polish Jazz", and "Some Flatbush…"
 * Joey Bada$ – rapping on "Polish Jazz"
 * Remy Banks – rapping on "Too Afraid to Dance"
 * Commission Studio – art direction, design
 * Erick the Architect – rapping on "Some Flatbush…"
 * Eyedress – production on "Illegal"
 * Graymatter – production on "A Forsaken Lover’s Plea"
 * Jack McKain – photography
 * NV – production on "Close Calls" and "Ali’s Roti Shop"
 * Obii Say – rapping on "Grasp", production on "Grasp"
 * Trevor Wright – mixing
 * Zeroh – audio mastering
 * Zoomo – production on "Home"