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Summer Walker<\/a> has been contemplating a pivot to golddigging since her beloved 2019 studio debut, Over It<\/em>. She broke through by longing for an ever-evasive balance of casual sex and compassion with \u201cGirls Need Love<\/a>,\u201d and then followed it lamenting about a dude \u201cPlaying Games\u201d on her next smash. Yet, amidst the R&B ballads of romantic dissatisfaction that have become Walker\u2019s calling card, she proposed a solution: what if she chose money over love? \u201cSeems like you gain more from a sugar daddy or a drug dealer,\u201d she mused on Over It<\/em>\u2019s \u201cJust Might\u201d (as in \u201cjust might be a ho\u201d). \u201cNo Love,\u201d the biggest single from her 2021 sophomore studio effort, Still Over It<\/em> (an album set against her tumultuous breakup with its most prominent producer, London on Da Track), said it frankly. \u201cAll I\u2019m tryna see is your credit card, swipe it all for me,\u201d SZA sang on her guest verse, as if she took the words out of Walker\u2019s mouth. \u201cJust CC me, just VV me\/Just that dick when I call.\u201d<\/p>\n Her latest album, Finally Over It<\/em> <\/a>signals the end of Walker\u2019s trilogy on heartbreak. To mark it, the singer went all in on a marrying-for-money motif. The cover art reimagines an image of then-26-year-old model Anna Nicole Smith marrying 89-year-old oil baron J. Howard Marshall in 1994. Smith, famously and unsuccessfully fought for a portion of Marshall\u2019s estate when he died less than two years after their marriage, though Smith insisted she really was in love with him. Walker\u2019s pre-Finally<\/em> loosie \u201cSpend It<\/a>\u201d embodied what much of America thought was actually behind that union \u2013 \u201cI want your black card,\u201d Walker coos. \u201cYou can keep your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n But what\u2019s really richer now is her sound. \u201cI\u2019m usually just like, \u2018Oh he broke my heart, put it on an 808 trap beat,\u2019\u201d Walker admitted<\/a> jokingly to Complex\u2019s Speedy Mormon about her approach up to this point (which is, in fact, a bit of an oversimplification). \u201cNow we\u2019re trying different things.\u201d To that end, Finally Over It<\/em> leans deep into the lushness of R&B maestros from the 1990s and early 2000s \u2013 waymakers like Bryan Michael Cox, Kuk Harrell, and Troy Taylor. Her layered vocals feel fuller and more intentional than ever, and she\u2019s thanked<\/a> the greats for teaching her their techniques outright.<\/p>\n Yes, the album is filled with obvious nods to the hits of yesteryear with expensive-sounding vocal samples of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cYes\u201d (on Walker\u2019s \u201cNo\u201d), Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cAlways Be My Baby\u201d (on \u201cBaby\u201d with Chris Brown), Bobby Womack\u2019s \u201cI Wish He Didn\u2019t Trust Me So Much\u201d (on \u201cGet Yo Boy\u201d with 21 Savage), and Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway\u2019s \u201cThe Closer I Get to You\u201d (on \u201cBaller\u201d with Monaleo, GloRilla and Sexyy Red). More satisfying than these moments, though, are the production flourishes that distinctly hearken back R&B classics without outright imitating them. When the guitar on \u201cNumber One,\u201d with Brent Fiayaz, is tinny and tight, it evokes Monica\u2019s \u201cAngel of Mine\u201d from 1998. When it reverbs cautiously on \u201cStitch Me Up,\u201d Beyonce\u2019s \u201cDangerously in Love\u201d comes to mind. Across the album, delicate chimes, gritty shakers, and orchestral strings radiate like the softened glow of old music videos.<\/p>\n Walker deliciously samples new genres here too. She delicately raps alongside Latto and Doja Cat on the hip-hop soul jam \u201cGo Girl.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSituationship,\u201d feels like bright indie rock. She channels SZA\u2019s \u201cNobody Gets Me\u201d-esque pop balladeering on \u201cFMT.\u201d Most impressively, Walker takes on country and reminds you its the progeny of her R&B forefathers on \u201cAllegedly\u201d with Teddy Swims, a track that could have been nestled right into Cowboy Carter<\/em> (and was, in fact, co-written and performed by Dave Hamlin<\/a>, one of the musicians behind a handful of songs from Beyonce\u2019s<\/em> Grammy-winning ode to reclamation).<\/p>\n Walker\u2019s outlook on love isn\u2019t really what\u2019s new on Finally Over It<\/em>. For every anthem of empowerment like \u201cGo Girl\u201d and \u201cNo,\u201d she\u2019s somewhere else putting up with less than she deserves, like a man whose best friend would be a better suitor on \u201cGet Yo Boy.\u201d She still puts the blues in R&B here, and a bolder change of subject matter would be a welcome evolution. No, it\u2019s the way Summer Walker surveys her genre and everything it touches that feels most like the lover girl\u2019s new lease on life.<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n