After spending much of the mid-2010s as half of indie pop duo Tigers in the Sky and learning to work with drum machines, synths, and recording software in addition to his childhood acoustic guitar, West Coast musician Lionel Deguzman launched his collaborative solo project, Lionel Boy, in 2018. With a sound defined by soft, dreamy timbres, laid-back grooves, and amiable if wistful lyrics to match, he debuted with the EP Who Is Dovey? In 2020. Recorded with returning producer Jonny Bell, a year later, first album Lionel Boy not only remains loyal to those attributes but strengthens them on a set with sun-streaked song titles like "Flower Girl," "Tides," and "Plumeria." It opens with the mood-setting "So Early," a lush and trippy track with fat, sustained tones and slow-moving chord progressions that suggest underwater vibraphone, pedal steel, and organ. They're accompanied by a slowed- or pitched-down lead vocal and sparse, trap-derived beats until the song breaks through the surface midway through. Picking up the tempo and sharpening components, including trading programmed hi-hat for varied struck-object and windchime-like percussion, its compassionate second half invites listeners in with warmth and understanding ("Did you blow it all?/Yeah, I feel your pain....Did you lose yourself?/No, we're all the same"). The woozy "Flower Girl" opts for loping rhythms and oversaturation, while "Tides" offers clean guitar licks over pillowy, measure-marking chords that shift between major and minor. Much of the album plays with effects that smother, then clarify, though occasional bouts of pure pop emerge in the form of tracks like "I'm Not Afraid" and the '80s Top 40-friendly "Potions." The bulk of Lionel Boy, however, falls under the umbrella of down-tempo, with drowsily sweet, hip-hop-injected atmospheres better served as background moods.