This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
Favourite Songs: Side A (Old), Wonderbread, Lonely, Float On (feat. Charli XCX), Red 2 Go, Side B (Dope Song), Dope Fiend Rental (feat. Schoolboy Q)
Least Favourite Songs: 25 Bucks (feat. Purity Ring), Smokin & Drinkin, Kush Coma (feat. A$AP Rocky & Zelooperz)
After listening to 'XXX' I found it impossible not to listen to Danny Brown's follow up record 'Old'. Side a of the album definitely matched the quality of his breakthrough album. I was listening to this and for the first 10 tracks I was thinking damn he **** nailed this. Danny was good as always but instrumentally it was amazing. There was a lot of times when it reminded me of the classic 90s hip hop beats but it never lost its left field edge. Lyrically it's pretty melancholy- like side b of the previous album- but this time it feels a bit more personal. Not only exploring drug addiction but his image, releationships, life growing up, a multiple number of things. Every song had single potential especially 'Wonderbread'; the biggest what the **** moment of the album. I was not expecting those flutes straight after the electronic '25 Bucks'. They're just completely different sonically. It might have also stood out to me because of how much better it is than '25 Bucks' which has this plain electro-pop chorus that I feel like I've heard a million times before. The singing is **** and I'm definitely not going to check out Purity Ring, not that I was interested in them anyway since all I've heard about their latest effort is complaints. The only thing that saves the song is Danny's flow but that barely lifts the quality above mediocrity. This is much the same on the turnt up second half of the album. The only savour is his flow, or flows; he seems to switch them seemingly effortlessly without it sounding forced and like on 'XXX' I often confuse his voice as a feature. That's only when I'm zoning out though if I listen to the lyrics it's obviously Danny Brown, wether it be because he's contemplating on his past life drug dealing and avoiding authorities (never in a braggadocious way though) or saying some weird **** that could only come from the mind of the Adderall Admiral. But as I said the second half is mediocre at best and quite disappointing considering how great the first half was. Maybe the songs are really good live but to be honest I don't even find them to be that good as banger tracks. I have the same issue with it as I do with the titular track off of Tyler, The Creator's latest album; I get that he wants some tracks that are good to play live but I think it's unnecessary to put them on a full length studio album for that reason. He could've put them out on a separate EP and left the album with just the first half which has a sufficient amount of tracks on or he could've just not released them because there's not a rule that says you can't perform unreleased songs. So I'm not a huge fan of side b although there's a few exceptions to this; when 'Side B (Dope Song)' came on and it got to the drop I had a **** rave on my bed. The track after 'Side B' (Dubstep') was pretty good as well, I absolutely loved Scrufizzer's verse. It was probably the standout feature for me. Beyond that the songs became kind of one dimensional, often pretty predictable and tiresome. Thankfully, it closed out beautifully with 'Float On' which had minimal backing vocals from Charli XCX and I found it to be quite beautiful. It was a good choice keeping her contributions subtle as well she's more of a bubblegum pop star than a beautiful vocalist. The track took the sound back to the first half of the album and at that point it felt like a blessing.
Improvement On Previous Project?: No
Try This If You Like: Grime. The EDM inspired beats sound similar to a lot of songs I've heard by English MCs.… Expand
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