Before Love Came to Kill Us is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez.^[4] It was released on March 27, 2020, by FMLY and Island Records.^[5] The production on the album was handled by multiple producers including Rogét Chahayed, Mura Masa, Hennedub, The Monarch and Bizness Boi among others. The album also features guest appearances by Eminem and 6lack on the standard version and with Rico Nasty, JID, A Boogie wit da Hoodie and Melii on the deluxe versions.

Before Love Came to Kill Us was prefaced with the singles "Figures", "Imported", and "Love in the Dark", and the promotional single "Ankles".^[6][7] The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. A deluxe edition with three additional songs was made available digitally on April 9, 2020.^[8] A super deluxe edition of the album was released on September 25, 2020.^[9]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	82/100[10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
Clash	8/10[12]
Exclaim!	9/10[13]
NME	[14]
The Guardian	[15]
Pitchfork	6.8/10[16]
The Telegraph	[17]
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+ ()[1]

Before Love Came to Kill Us was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on nine reviews.^[10]

For AllMusic, Andy Kellman wrote that "Although it's all over the place, Before Love Came to Kill Us radiates conviction from front to back, and is without doubt a true representation of its creator."^[11] Exclaim!'s Ryan B. Patrick affirms that the album "has been built to last" and is "one of the better albums in an already interesting 2020."^[13] Rhian Daly of NME called it "heart-stoppingly good" and a "beautiful, heart-wrenching debut that sees its creator come good on her early promise."^[14] Writing for Clash, Narzra Ahmed complimented Reyez's versatility and adjectived the album "an excellent debut".^[12] Kathryn St. Asaph of Pitchfork pointed out that the album's genre range works in a "satisfying" way "not because she whizzes across multiple genres, but because of the skill she displays at each".^[16] The singer's uniqueness was praised by The Guardian's Kitty Empire, who labeled the tracks as "largely excellent".^[15]

The album was shortlisted for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize,^[18] and for the Juno Award for Contemporary R&B/Soul Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2021.^[19] For the Polaris Music Prize, which followed a unique format of commissioning filmmakers to make short films inspired by the shortlisted albums due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada preventing the staging of a traditional gala, the album's film was directed by Alicia K. Harris.^[20]

Before Love Came to Kill Us debuted at number 13 on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 27,000 album-equivalent units in its first week.^[21] This became Reyez' first US top-twenty debut.^[21] On November 21, 2023, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units in the United States.^[22]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} indicates an additional producer
• ^{^[b]} indicates a co-producer
• ^{^[c]} indicates a vocal producer
• The track's titles are stylized in all caps.

• List of 2020 albums