Music Reviews

So yeah, the white cornball eminem clone NF is back with a brand new… Mixtape? I honestly have no clue why this is branded as a mixtape, considering it has the length of most full length LPs, but whatever. The only important question is, is the music here good? And well, that question has many answers.

For once the opener „CLOUDS“ (yes, this is one of the albums where every letter of every song is capital) is actually one of NF’s more fulfilling songs. The typical orchestral instrumentation really works here, complimenting the occasional cringy but still somewhat introspective lyrics. The follow-up „THAT’S A JOKE“ drops the bar a bit, with the really akward sound effects and fast rapping segment in the middle – I mean that at least sounds somewhat cool, but do you really expect me to pay attention to what he’s saying in the middle of that? NF is one of those „real rappers“ that just for the love of god can’t balance fast rapping with substance and it shows. Still, the song isn’t awful or anything, mostly just gets burried by the other like 4 songs that sound the EXACT same here, no big deal. One thing I’ll give NF on this album, he sounds really confident with his delivery – that makes some of the more unaberable lines, well, more berable. „JUST LIKE YOU“ has this really weird inflection on NF’s voice, sounds like a cheap Tyler Joseph rip-off and I’m also not really that crazy about the piano instrumentation on this one. NF also gets just absolutely burried, when the actual instrumentation kicks in. But once again, it’s not terrible, just a low point for me personally. „STORY“ is actually a nice change of pace and also probably the best song on this thing, kind of by a landslide. Like everything after this song just feels so stale compared to this – this is really peak NF. The story he portrays in this one is really captivating and the additional sound effects really make you feel like you are right there with him – it’s kind of insane. „PRIDEFUL“ is just your typical trap beat, with some pianos and orchestral instrumentation to smoothen things up. The instrumental is actually quite delicate, but NF attempts to go full Drake here and it, uh, sort of falls flat on it’s face. Still this is one of the more down-to-earth songs here and I appriciate that if nothing else. The second single released prior to this album „LOST“ with Hopsin out of all people is actually pretty good and not beacause of NF, but Hopsin really carries this track, like REALLY. Just an enjoyable song overall, if you can get past how melodramatic it all sounds. „LAYERS“ is also a low point for me – NF sounds really hungry here, but unfortunately that’s to his disantavantage on this one. The only thing saving this one is genuinely the beat switch transitioning in the second half, but there still isn’t anything ground-breaking about it, it’s just sort of okay. „DRIFITING“ is the emotional anthem of this album – NF again tries to go more melodical here and it actually kind of pans out for him. Once you get past the corniness of it all, it’s not even half as bad as it could be, especially the short freak out by the end of the song, it really comes full circle. One thing I’ll give NF credit for is that he really cares about these songs – even though it’s just a mixtape, it’s a mixtape of high quality, at least prouction-wise. „TRUST“ featuring Tech N9ne just exists. It’s not terrible, but just waay too melodramatical for me, especially by this point in the album, it’s just too much. The closer „PAID MY DUES“ also currently probably the biggest song on this album is alright – could’ve been better, but definetly could’ve been much worse. The flavoured trap beat actually reallz works in this context and the instrumentation surrounding it compliments it quite well. There is also the weird CLOUDS edit as the actual closer to this thing, which is literally the same song, just shorten up a bit, so me talking about it would be just repeating myself.

I haven’t been this split on an album in a while, I’ll tell you that much – the good songs here are usually really good, but the others are just sort of there to fill out space. The whole thing is just packed with high-class intricate production, that NF usually undersells. Still this is probably one of NF’s better releases, the highlights on this one are really high.

Strong 5/10