Long before others caught a glimpse of where Afropop was headed, London-based singer and producer Maleek Berry had a definitive idea of the genre’s future in mind. Starting out by producing for icons like Wande Coal, Davido, and Wizkid, Berry evolved into a star in his own right, thanks to his hypnotic, mind-altering take on the genre that paired Afropop’s slick rhythms with the sensuality of R&B and balmy flirtatious innuendos lifted from dancehall. Between 2016’s Last Daze of Summer and 2018’s First Daze of Winter, Berry effectively soundtracked the coming of age of a generation increasingly fascinated by the global rise of Afropop. While Berry made himself an unmissable part of that crucial period for plenty of listeners, the singer (born Okunola Abdul Maleek) remains something of a mystery, with little known about his life and what he gets up to outside of music. On his long-expected debut album, If Only Love Was Enough, Berry is as enigmatic as ever, yet he reacquaints himself with the genre he helped shape with the quiet intensity that he’s made a trademark. There are big instrumentals and grand declarations of love across the album’s 15 tracks. Where 2020’s Isolation Room was a diaristic reflection on the lonesome consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, If Only Love Was Enough has an extended gaze at the modern manifestations of love and how it can be hampered by ambition. Berry is a lover’s delight on “All over you,” where he promises the world to his partner and assures them that he’ll be wherever they want to be. He wants to show off his lover on the jaunty “Turning Up,” but just as the album title suggests, sometimes, love is not enough. Wizkid joins for a pithy duet about missing a lover (“Situation”), even though the romance is not official, and Tiwa Savage dials in for a slippery blues jam (“4 My Body”) that excoriates a lover who only wants bodily pleasure. There are shades of all the Berry eras stitched into the margins of the album: “Lagos Party” is a dedication to the famous parties that take place across the city, in keeping with the tradition he started on “Eko Miami,” while Ruger directly references Berry’s melody from 2017’s “Bend It” on the heartwarming intergenerational collab “Lately.”