American Teen is Khalid's debut studio album which was released on March 3, 2017 by Right Hand Music Group and RCA Records.
The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum by the RIAA. It also received a Grammy nomination for "Best Urban Contemporary Album."
Tracklisting[]
- American Teen
- Young Dumb & Broke
- Location
- Another Sad Love Song
- Saved
- Coaster
- 8Teen
- Let's Go
- Hopeless
- Cold Blooded
- Winter
- Therapy
- Keep Me
- Shot Down
- Angels
Chart Performance[]
"American Teen" debuted at #9 on the Billboard 200 with 37,000 album-equivalent units, of which 12,000 were pure album sales. In August of 2017, it reached a peak of #4.
On October 24, 2017, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of one million units.
By the end of 2017, the album had accumulated 1,220,000 album-equivalent units in the United States, with 147,000 being pure sales.
Critical Reception[]
Reviewing for Vice, Robert Christgau said that "the first half of this R&B album justifies its title with a clarity and candor so astonishing it overshadows the music's racial identity [...] Second half is skillful but conventional—seven succinct, catchy unrequited love songs all in a row. Khalid Robinson sings in a winning conversational murmur with room for growth, and because the vocals are as unassuming as the words, the song structures he concocts with various pals and pros seems more straightforward than they are." He later called the album a "teenpop milestone".
Ryan B. Patrick of Exclaim! wrote that the album "generally plays things straight up, not too concerned about chasing bleeding edge sounds but resting nicely in the pocket between conventional R&B and a future-pop-minded audience".
Glenn Gamboa of Newsday gave the album a grade of B+ and summarized that the album shows Khalid as a "natural" and "establishes him as one of R&B's up-and-coming stars".
In a three-star review for AllMusic, Andy Kellman said that on lead single "Location" "and through much of what fills out American Teen, [...] Robinson's not one to get worked up. He's in no particular rush, content to drift through life while accepting, and occasionally sort of celebrating, the present."