These Days...
by Ab-Soul
  • Record Label: Top Dawg
  • Release Date: Jun 24, 2014
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
Buy Now
Buy on
  1. NOW Magazine
    Jul 25, 2014
    80
    Ab-Soul is still the third man up in the stacked TDE crew (behind Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q), but this album establishes him as the group’s most reliable Swiss Army knife: deft in a wide variety of sonic and thematic situations.
  2. HipHopDX
    Jul 25, 2014
    80
    He’s let the high filter out more of the revelation, and it sounds like a more accessible piece of entertainment than his last. It’s not the call to arms some expected, but Ab-Soul is as convincingly conspicuous as he’s ever been.
  3. XXL
    Jul 25, 2014
    80
    Ab’s creative leaps are sometimes jarring at the onset, such as “Closure” featuring Jhené Aiko, a track that will be deeply unsettling to the National Association of Backpacker Excellence among others.
  5. DJ Booth
    Jul 25, 2014
    80
    These days, Soul’s money tree has blossomed and with it, expectations have grown and relationships and trust are harder to come by. But for now at least, Soul is in control.
  6. Paste Magazine
    Jul 25, 2014
    77
    That Ab-Soul tries to do both makes for a pretty entertaining ride, even when he technically falters. Ambition changes the definition of success, making this Ab-Soul record a better experience that can be picked apart.
  7. Pitchfork
    Jul 25, 2014
    77
    The more human Ab-Soul dares to be on record, the stronger he becomes.
  8. Pretty Much Amazing
    Jul 25, 2014
    75
    hese Days… isn’t the kind of sharp-to-the-touch effort that one associates with excellent rappers who eschew the mainstream.... It’s the start of a conversation; and one can only hope that he plans on finishing it.
  9. Boston Globe
    Jul 25, 2014
    70
    Instead of another Black Hippy declaration, These Days... sounds very of-the-moment.
  10. Exclaim
    Jul 25, 2014
    70
    The self-proclaimed "Genius, idiot" succeeds for the most part in moving out of his sonic comfort zone while toeing the lyrical line between enlightenment and ignorance.
  11. The A.V. Club
    Jul 25, 2014
    67
    These Days… is a dense, complicated animal--even the blandest tracks have enough tricks to reward multiple listens, and may reveal themselves with time. But for someone so comfortable wearing his poetic heart on his sleeve, the black-lipped pastor has made an oddly distant album.
  12. Consequence
    Jul 25, 2014
    67
    While These Days... does linger a bit too long in the depths of intoxication, it’s difficult to write this off as anything less than a solid indie release.
  13. The 405
    Jul 25, 2014
    65
    These Days... is a messy album: half completely unimpressive and half brilliant; botched skits; combined songs and an occasional identity crisis make judging the album as a cohesive whole very difficult indeed.

Awards & Rankings

66
#66 Most Shared Album of 2014

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 58 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 58
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 58
  3. Negative: 3 out of 58
  1. NazAw
    Jul 27, 2014
    8
    Ab-Soul with "These Days..." with a sting of the pop-music's taste, these days.

    A fun and more than ever ratchet driven project from TDE's    Ab-Soul with "These Days..." with a sting of the pop-music's taste, these days.

    A fun and more than ever ratchet driven project from TDE's most lyrical and drugged-out socially aware hippy, Ab-Soul. As the title pretty much sums up a feeling of "These Days...", it is more straightforward, it is more explicit and it is more accessible to the ears of an average-listener. Though, beneath the surface it is a thoughtful piece of work and having it's moments of darker under-tones!

    In the light of Ab-Soul's previous releases, "Control System" with it's many subjects, was a mixed bag, as varied as for the many Michael Jackson fans out there (R.I.P. on that 5-year anniversary, time flies).

    But now, on the follow-up [album], folks thoughts and reviews around this release, which resolute it feeling impersonal, messy, commercial and a bit strange so to say. Considering that Soul with his previous efforts made ​​himself well-known as the brain and the most independent in TDE. But the farther one penetrates into this delusional albums core, it turns out that "These Days ..." clearly is in fact more of a photograph and a parody of the society, these days (pun) and contemporary hip hop, as he says, capturing the last two or three years of it, a time capsule.
    Tracks like the over-saturated, R&B warm of a cut "Nevermind That" and the DJ Mustard-influenced (Bay Area, really, but these days.. concept, so) "Twact" is very reminiscent of songs that rotate in power these days (pun intended), but with a distinct Soulo-twist.

    It is an album, that will diverse the audience, in my opinion though, Ab-Soul comes out with a handful of interesting and catchy tunes. At times, (as the cover art for this project) biblical on the fantastic and stand-out cut "Stigmata" feauturing Action Bronson and Asaad. Having a genuine and fresh interpolation of Nas‘ song, The Cross on the chorus to bring the concept all together all more vivid.

    The Hip Hop references do not stop there, the highlights coming across is a hilarious Chief Keef "Love Sosa" moment on the back hand of the Black Hippy member - Jay Rock feautured "Feeling Us", and singing along with last years Drake phrase **** talk more, than **** these days.." on the fan favorite "Just Have Fun". An up-tempo track that that later on transfers the party to the second part of the track, a downfall on drugs and alcohol. The self titled part (These Days), includes more references to the mainstream scene, one to YG's "My **** on the laugh-cracking skit that interfered in-between, and on the verses where Ab-Soul is seen borrowing a Migos flow and making it finally more than a flow that is enjoyable on the ears but on paper too. The track concludes with some beautiful production, guitars and a cathcy hook by the O'My's.

    The opener, "God's Reign" is one of the albums deeper cuts, feauturing more of the clever bars as we have come to know Ab for, with SZA singing the hook and Corin Roddick from the duo Purity Ring providing an excellent production for Soul to rap over, as moody, dreamy and odd as Soul himself.
    The LP is not without it's flaws though, when tracks like "Twact" swerves around I can not help to think of why Ab-Soul didn't instead stack in songs like the fantastic "Christoper DRONEr", (one that could easily slip in to his top ten) to really package this project together, with talks that is relatable and issued, these days (pun once again), as he tackled the Jesus image such as.
    The album finishes of with, what on paper seems to be the long awaited collaborative EP with singer/producer JMSN. While we did only get one song, the big surprise is a raw audio clip of a rap battle between, the rapper Ab-Soul and the battle-rapper Daylyt.

    The album, as a whole brings, at-least, veriaty, with stunning lyrical spins as on the third verse on the dusty, boom-bap- Longterm influenced "Tree of Life", the emotionally shattered, but catchy "Closure", Q smash on "Hunnid Stax", the reprise of "Section.80s" "Ab-Soul's Outro" but now being the very own, comrade Kendrick's time to spit it, and to note, the many pop-ups on the original tracks, that includes new cuts, balancing out the mediocrity from guest features as Rick Ross, Jinx and Short Dawg.

    Ab-Soul is confusing, to some confused with this one, not sure if I even understand the album at the moment, which kind of makes me love it, or how it will impact me on the long-run.
    Is it perfect? Brilliantly, no, not really, though is it a stretch much to say that this is more enjoyable than "Control System"? No, not really.
    But what I know is, that I'm going to try decipher this puzzle, "These Days ..." as I have been a week since the release of it.
    Even if you dis-like or love Ab-Soul's new release, this might be the most interesting Hip Hop album to dig deeply into this year.
    "These Days..." is un-expected, a satire of todays mainstream scene in Hip Hop we can discuss about.

    *edited, in less 5000 characters*    … Full Review »
  2. Macrofficial
    May 10, 2020
    10
    I am very happy with this album! 'Gods Reign' is a song that would probably sound sick in the car. 'Tree Of Life' might be my least favouriteI am very happy with this album! 'Gods Reign' is a song that would probably sound sick in the car. 'Tree Of Life' might be my least favourite song on the album, it isn't bad, but it's the only song on the album that didn't really interest me. 'Hunnid Stax' has great bars and a good beat, both peoples verses were good but I personally prefer Ab-Soul's. 'Dub Sac' sounded great. 'World Runners' was nice, but I didn't really care for the Lupe Fiasco feature. 'Nevermind That' has one of my favourite bars one the whole album: "no cat in this, I volunteered for these hunger games". especially because i read that book series quite recently. 'Twact' is a BOP. 'Just Have Fun' is great. 'Kendrick Lamar's Interlude' is great, Kendrick carries the track with probably my favourite verse on the album. 'Closure' is more of a personal song from Ab-Soul, it's a very good song. 'Sapiosexual' … Full Review »
  3. Connorcox1997
    Mar 19, 2019
    8
    These Days... by Ab-Soul is a great album, although I must admit it's not as good as his last project Control System. There are songs that IThese Days... by Ab-Soul is a great album, although I must admit it's not as good as his last project Control System. There are songs that I like on this album, like "God's Reign ft SZA" which was a promoting start to the album and the last track of the album "W.R.O.H" ft JMSN" closes strong on the album. The production was dope on the album, and ab-soul continues to improve his flow and his bars. Even though These Days... by Ab-Soul may not be my favorite Top Dawg Entertainment project, it's still a great album though. 8/10… Full Review »
See all user reviews »