“You guys, so much has happened in the last six years,” Jhené Aiko wrote on social media when she announced her first full-length since 2020’s Chilombo. An hour-long journey around the R&B singer-songwriter’s Southern California homeland—complete with guest appearances by locals like Kendrick Lamar and Ab-Soul—Westside Whimsy is full of luxuriant textures that update quiet storm for the bedroom-pop generation. At times, those plush synths serve as a landing spot for anxieties: “I can’t escape the heartbreak,” she muses over fuzz-covered pianos and strings on “Break,” while “Don’t Be That Guy” pairs a striding beat with Aiko gently, kindly affirming her boundaries. Aiko lets the sunshine in on cuts like “Beach Boy,” a gently swaying love song where her voice curls around her wonder at the “good vibrations” she’s feeling, and “So Good,” where she and Lamar steal admiring glances at each other over synths.