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

Alright so I listened to the whole EP about 4 times now (sounds cooler on paper considering the album is three songs and 12 minutes long) and I gotta say, this is EASILY the best thing Drake has been involved in since „If You’re Reading This…“ – like what the heck man, you just can’t drop this out of the blue and expect me not to lose my mind. It’s not even that there is much to talk about, the EP is literally just 3 songs, but all of these songs manage to prove one thing – Drake’s still got it.

Alright so let’s take this track-by-track, shouldn’t be too hard considering the album’s tracklisting, right? The album opens up with the kind of rough but charming „What’s Next“ featuring some heavy synths and what sounds almost like a „Whole Lotta Red“ type beat – Drake rides those typical flavoured trap beats with some cold confident flows and introspective lyricism that follows him throughout the whole EP. Drake also gives a little time to shine to the instrumental at the end, as he does with all the other songs on here – really shows you that he actually cares about what he’s doing here. The second song in the tracklist is the song „Wants adn Needs“ featuring Lil Baby, which sounds like an „Astroworld“ leftover, though in a good way – Lil Baby shows up almost immidiately after Drake’s few introductory lines and absolutely murders the beat, just absolute slaughter – Drake’s delivery is also purposefully a little off-key in again, it somehow manages to work pretty well. The closer „Lemmon Pepper Freestyle“ may actually be my favorite here, soulely beacause of the instrumental, which is actually just pure bliss to my ears and compliments Drake’s delivery insanely well – I’m just blown away by this point in the EP, this is actually just stunning.

Soo… Yeah, Drake’s new „album“, pretty good huh? I mean besides the fact that it’s literally just a collection of 3 songs, all of them bang better then the previous one – it all has a lot of replay value and depth, that even though it’s just 12 minutes long, there is still so much to go through and dig into. Overall just a great project, really giving me hope for the full album that hopefully drops this year.

Decent 8/10

The up and coming UK artist slowthai showed a lot of promise with his 2019 album „Nothing Great About Brittain“, where he showed a nice contrast between absolute bangers and the more introspective cuts – though here on this new album he decided to split the two into two seperate CDs. How did it work out?

Well I guess it’s safe to say by now that slowthai basically never misses with his album releases, or at least rarely – TYRON is again your whole slowthai package, though the two CD format makes for a few intresting changes. Firstly right of the back it’s pretty safe to say that the second half significantly out-shines the first one, to the point where it can be sort of distracting – the first half is by no means bad, but the somewhat decent collection of trap bangers just doesn’t live up to the introspective side of things on the second disk – even the production takes a major step-up. There are of course high-lights on both sides, such as „CANCELLED“ on the first one with it’s string arranged psychedelic production, weird yet captivating swith ups and the guest star of the show Skepta, who absolutely murders his verse, to the point where slothai’s verse doesn’t hit as hard as it could’ve and „nhs“ on the other half of this album, with it’s weird high-pitched chorus, very sad and moody piano chords accompanied by a trap beat and slowthai’s introspective lyricism, taking a deep look at our current state of society. But the real highlights are really mostly scattered throughout the second disk, exceptions on the first one being „MAZZA“, though mostly for ASAP Rocky’s appearance on the track and „PLAY WITH FIRE“, whitch is the closing track of of the first half and the dark switch up by the end of the song really sets the mood for the second disk – the rest of the first disk are all basically perfectly acceptable trap bangers with a cool bar here and there or a more psychadelic beat, but that’s about it. The first song „i tried“ of the second disk immidiately picks things up though and you can just hear the quality gap between the two sides instantly – it is also I believe the only song on the album to use real drums throughout it’s whole runtime and the funky guitar in the background combined with the whole aesthethic of the track is a nice touch. Then there is the mezmerizing „focus“, which has this amazing female vocal line incorporated in the beat, it really ads so much flavour to the song. The following „terms“ is a 3 minute collaboration track with Dominic Fike and Denzel Curry and yeah, it’s basically as good as that collaboration could’v been – the beat is very soothing but nothing out of the ordinary, but the guest verses and the sung hook on this one are really what sells it. The accoustic ballad „push“ is actually one of my favorites here, I love how this track uses space with spacy and faint vocals in the background aswell as some kind of post-rockish guitars at places, it’s just really well orcheastrated, even though the beat is kind of bland – also the female singer fits this song so well, it’s insane. The second to last song „feel away“ is another collaboration track though this one’s more somber and melodic, with some great production value and appearances from James Blake and Mount Kimbie, that only add to the track’s lush production. The closer „adhd“ is a rather depressing ending, reminds me off something that could’ve easily landed on the „Some Rap Songs“ album by Earl Sweatshirt – slowthai talks about his depressive state on this one, really going all out in the second half, bordering with emo rap, though in a good way – it’s a reall powerful and emotional send off to this album.

So there you have it, the brand new album from one of the most promising voice in modern music and it’s pretty good, not gonna lie, thought this was a pretty enjoyable listen through and through, even through the pretty obious quality gap on the two discs, I still found some enjoyment from both of them – but if anything, this is another win for slowthai, really pushing the boundaries of what he is capable of, even though it in my opinnion doesn’t quite live up to his previous studio effort.

Light 8/10

6ix9ine stands out as one of the most provocative and hated controversial figures out there right now, but you gotta give it to the guy. he can make some kick-ass songs. The first single of of this thing „Gooba“ is what got me initially intrested in checking this whole project out, if it can live up to the energy that that track gave off. The following singles „Trollz“ featuring none other then Nicky Minaj and „Punani“ featuring autotune were both solid songs with „Trollz“ being kinda a guilty pleasure for me – so with that being said, I went into this thing expecting nothing bangers. So is that actually what we got?

The answer is simple – no, not even close. What we got INSTEAD is a bunch of unfinnished forgatble songs, if you can call them that. I genuinely can’t recall a single other track on here. Well, maybe besides the opener „Locked Up Pt. 2“, which is probably the most ambitious cut on here – the production is direct and it serves as an alright introduction to the album. But beyond that? Except the mentioned singles, there is literally nothing of substance here. To take it track by track, the second track „TUTU“ has that generic tropical vibe to it, with some really awful braggadocious lyrics and forgetabble autotune passages – no reason to come back to this song ever again. The song „Wait“ pisses me off, because the beat had so much potential, but is utterly ruined by 6ix9ine’s sloppy vocals that don’t compliment the gentle accoustic instrumentation at all. The production is essentially the only selling point here, but again nothing else of a substance to be found. „Charlie“ tries to go really hard with those typical 6ix9ine’s screamed vocals, but the produciton is so bland and forgetabble, that by the end of it, I genuinely couldn’t recall how the song actually sounded. Though by far the worst offender on this thing has to be „NINI“ with the featured Leftside on the vocals, which follows the same formula and production choices as songs like „BEBE“ from the 6ix9ine’s previous studio effort – that is essentially just a latin American beat with a modern trap twist to it, that sounds like if torture was a sound. Luckily the song is just around 2 minutes long, even though it feels like 5 minutes. Similar waste of time and space is the song „YAYA“, which for a change features 6ix9ine on the vocals, which really isn’t a saving point – also the beat is just horrendous, I can’t stand it. Then we get some more forgetable tracks such as „LEAH“, „GATA“ and „GTL“, all of which I can’t recall a single note or vocal passage from – there is literally no reason for these songs to exist. The last song „AVA“ tries to go for a rather emotional climax, but it completely and I mean COMPLETELY rips off Travis Scott’s „Yosemite“ – from the sound, to the structure, to the production – everything about this song screams Travi Scott. Except maybe 6ix9ine himself, which just screams awful.

This really is what it means to fall off – because belive it or not, I did quite enjoy some of the moments from the guy’s first studio album „Dummy Boy“, especially in the latter half – the production on that thing was out of this world compared to this. And the quality gap between that album and this one right here is really kinda unreal. Not only in production, but also in 6ix9ine’s flows, his delivery – basically everything, the only exceptions to this being the singles. Si in conclussion, this was just not that great and more than that just boring – can we just end the 6ix9ine trend now?

decent 2/10

My personal expirience with X’s music is rather mixed – I found his debut studio album „17“ to be really blunt and melodramatic and I can’t really say I enjoyed his second album „?“ either, even though there was a more genre variety and experimentation going on, especially in the realms of emo and rock music, but a lot of those experiment just fell flat on their face. Still though, the legacy that X has left upon his passing is undeniable and the impact his music had too – therefore it’s a shame, that this new posthumous record over here, is taking such a big dump on X’s legacy. When I was going into this, I already didn’t have my hopes up, concidering what the label decided to do with the man’s last posthumous LP „Skins“, but on that record I can at least say that it sounded like something X would make – it still sounded like an XXXTentacion album for the very least. What happens on Bad Vibes Forever is more sad then anything – the label just trying to squeeze every last penny out of the man’s name. This album is essentially a compilation of 25 cuts, all of which have X’s demo-ish poorly recorded old vocals or literally just a few vocal lines, mixed with a trap or an accoustic beat and some feature slapped onto it. Not only does it come off as extremely lazy, but also extremrely ignorant to the man’s passing – I can guarantee you, that if X was still alive, he wouldn’t have wanted any of this. But more then anything, it just doesn’t feel like an XXXTentacion album at all – just because you can release something like this doesn’t mean you should. Anyway, let’s take a closer look on some of the tracks, shall we?

The whole thing kicks off with another introduction, as expected from an XXXTentacion album – and even though I admire the message in this one, I can’t get behind how tounge and cheek and melodramatic it sounds. The following track „Ex Bitch“ is one of the few tracks here that I actually like and that resemble some sort of effort in them – the nice accoustic beat goes pretty well with X’s dramatic yet powerful voice, and it all just comes together pretty nicely. But it’s pretty much downhill from here – half of the songs just sound like unfinnished demos, the feature are most of the time really out of place and unfitting and the overuse of accoustic beats in the first half of the album is actually kinda insulting. The title track is your typical melodramatic accoustic love ballad, the Lil Wayne song „school shooters“ has some of the worst and most trying-to-be-deep lyrics I’ve heard this year and the Noah Cyrus song „Ecstacy“ as whole is just extraordinarily bad – like seriously, why is this the longest song on here? The song „I Changed Her Life“ featuring Rick Ross (again, why is Rick Ross doing a feature on a XXXTentacion album?) has actually some quite nice synth-driven production to it, but is overall just really fogetable – as most of the album anyway. The song „LIMBO“ has some big potential at first – I love Killstation’s appearence on here, he absolutely destroys his verse – but is in the end completely destroyed by the weird beat-switch, if you can even call it that, in the middle of the track. I can kinda see what they were going for there, but it just ruins the song in my opinion – again, another lazy and poor decision. One of the worst songs here has to be „Hot Dyal“ though – why in the world would we want a spanish Despacito-like pop song on an album like this is beyond me. On the other hand the song „Daemons“ offers a nice change of pace, with its very lo-fi and moody aesthetic and Joey Bada$$ is one of the features, that actually makes sense here. I quite enjoyed the introspective lyricism, that for once didn’t come of as corny or too melodramatic. The song „Eat It Up“ ruins all of that though, with it’s borderline unlistenable vocal melodies, that sound like if X was trying to do a Travis Scott impression at 3 AM and without the autotune. „Hearteater“ could’ve actually been a fine song, if it wasn’t for the absolutely horrendous guitar „solo“ in the middle – excuse me, but have you ever heard a guitar solo before? And the harmonizing on this one is also just something else – if it weren’t for the rest of the instrumentation kinda carrying the rest of the song, then it would be an instant skip. The album throws at us another cornball of a song before it finnishes, with the song „NorthStar“, which was already a bad song to begin with, but when Joyner Lucas came in starting doing his gotta-rap-fast flows, that ultimately say absolutely nothing, then the song was just in complete shambless. The closing track „IT’S ALL FADING TO BLACK“ for some unexplainable reason features the pop punk act Blink-182, which is out of all those features, I have already listed, probably the least fitting one – like in what universe is Blink-182 an apropriatte feature on a XXXTentacion song? Anyways, the song itself is a complete throwaway – it has some on-the-surface intresting ideas it goes through, but is ultimately just boring, even though it tries to be super climacitic and inspirational.

So yeah, this was „Bad Vibes Forever“ by The Label. In all honesty though, this thing was just horrendous, but more then that, it’s just sad what is being done with X’s legacy – how can you possibly realease something like this under the name of a deceased artist, as that artist’s label, is something I will never understand – this is genuinely some of the worst music that has entered my ears this year and the context of all of this makes it just ten times worse.

strong 1/10