On my second listen, and the first three tracks are so good. That Stereogum review was wayyyy to harsh, BUT I enjoyed the perspective. I also do agree a lot of the guest spots outshine Chance. Anyways when I’m done with my second listen in 12 hours I’ll post more thoughts. I still like this a lot tho.
I dont want these songs to be anything more than a celebration of love and shared happiness. The simplicity of the themes on this record is actually really refreshing to me in an otherwise cynical/jaded genre.
It bugs me that criticisms of this album are being written off as curmudgeonly. If he just wanted to write happy, simple songs I'm all for that, I just don't think he executed it well here. I love the happy, softball stuff on Acid Rap and Coloring Book, he just did it a hell of a lot better there!
y’all me disagreeing with breihan is not necessarily me disagreeing with your presumably nuanced opinions i’m still assembling my thoughts but lucky moose has been right on throughout this thread imo
for me this record is very musically rich, it's like a playlist at a cookout (or a wedding, as suggested). the production can be gentle, breathlike, building itself gradually in blushes kinda like surf but more song-focused (cf. "eternal" is lovely, feels like a dj overlapping anita baker and maze tracks), then throwing itself totally into rattling emptiness (cf. "handsome," "hot shower," these are great rap songs) or some composite space ("roo"). idk this feels more... dimensional than either coloring book or acid rap to me, and i love acid rap and enjoy coloring book. i don't get the hate at all, i think it's delightful, "i got you" is so amazing, i can't imagine writing that tom breihan piece about a record with a song like that on it. and i've only talked about the first half!!!!!
Yaaaas. Need more takes like this. I really think people just soured on Chance after Coloring Book and arent giving this one a fair chance.
I wonder what the setlist for this tour will look like. He already basically stopped playing old stuff on the Coloring Book tour so I would expect mostly TBD and Coloring Book but the fact that he just put the first two albums on streaming might mean he might bring some of those songs back? That might just be wishful thinking though lol
There are too many features on this thing. I know Chance has always had lots of features on his projects before, but he was always the star of the show still. Not so much here, as he's either outshined by his guests or drowned out by the sheer volume of them. His raps are pretty dull, honestly. I've tried so hard with this album but it's just not clicking. I really wanted to like it. The songs just aren't that strong. The worst songs on Acid Rap and Coloring Book are better than the best songs on this.
It’s funny that people thought p4k would shit on this for cred and the review seems more generous than scathing.