Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	82/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Exclaim!	9/10
HipHopDX	4.5/5
Los Angeles Times
Paste	8.8/10
Pitchfork	7.8/10
PopMatters	8/10
Q
Spin	8/10
USA Today

A Love Surreal is the third studio album by American neo soul singer Bilal, released on February 26, 2013, by eOne. He recorded the album for five months at various studios with most of the recording crew from his 2010 album Airtight's Revenge, including producer Shafiq Husayn, drummer Steve McKie, and pianist Robert Glasper. Bilal wrote and produced most of the album, which he titled in reference to his unreleased album Love for Sale and John Coltrane's 1965 album A Love Supreme.

A Love Surreal explores different stages of love in a cycle of slow-burning songs that Bilal deliberately wrote for female listeners. Its songs eschew the personal and societal themes of Airtight's Revenge in favor of upbeat songs about cultivating a romance and meditative laments on its dissolution. Bilal wanted to make the album sound multidimensional and drew on the surrealist art of Salvador Dalí for inspiration.

Bilal premiered the album's music in his performance at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. Its lead single "Back to Love" was released on December 11, 2012. A Love Surreal received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised Bilal's expressive singing, clever songwriting, and mellow musical style.

After writing his 2010 album Airtight's Revenge with themes intended for male listeners, Bilal wrote A Love Surreal for female listeners with lyrics about love. He described writing the album as a surrealistic exploration of love. He was inspired by the surrealism of Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, after viewing a 2005 Salvador Dalí exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He also drew on the shelving of his unreleased album Love for Sale, which inspired A Love Surreal's title. "For the longest I was supposed to sign with [eOne] and actually put Love for Sale out, but you know, things happen", Bilal told Okayplayer. "It's surreal that I'm right back at the same spot about to put out a record with them. Also, surreal – the word surrealism – my inspiration for this record, I got a lot of concepts from Salvador Dali and the way he made his art pieces, it almost looks three-dimensional, and I wanted to do that with the sound of this album. So this record is almost like a sonic art piece." Bilal had wanted to sign with eOne because of the artistic freedom the label had given fellow recording artist Dwele. The album's title was also inspired by John Coltrane's 1965 album A Love Supreme.

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Wikipedia