Folks I know it's Friday and everybody is feeling wild and crazy, but there isn't gonna be a second album
Last verse in "FEAR." when he works in most of the song titles and references the album itself is such a great little meta moment. (Also definitely lends credence to the argument that there's no second album coming.)
I'm a little lukewarm on it. It's pretty good on a individual song basis, but it feels unfocused, more like a mixtape than an album. Production is spotty, i don't like some of the R&B style beats. I think his strength has always been the diverse ear he brings to his songs. That said, like I said, most of the songs on their own are smoking. DNA, Element, Humble, and Feel, particularly. So it's a little frontloaded in that regard but still solid.
Upon first listen, the album didn't feel up to par in terms of cohesiveness compared to GKMC/TPAB. I enjoyed the individual songs, but I didn't feel like it had a narrative like those two records did. After my third listen, I feel like all that's actually there, but no where near as on the nose, much more nuanced this time around. No skits or poems in between walking us through, but still taking us on a ride nonetheless.
I listened to like six songs from this on shuffle on accident ughhhh but they sounded really good. Excited to actually listen tonight
There's absolutely a narrative here, it's just much smaller in scale than TPAB's and far more personal than GKMC. Disagree with the comments that it feels like a mixtape. This thing is pretty damn thematically concise, it just doesn't follow a set of characters and scenes.
Haha, that's the worst...I accidentally listened to Pale Horses for the first time on shuffle. I was like bleh, what's with the lack of cohesion, mWY? lol
As I read through the thread this is probably the comment I agree with the most. This album is phenomenal and there are so many tracks I enjoy (hell I can't name one I don't) but I have a difficulty getting into this chorus and like you said, it seems to be a recurring thing. A lot of songs on TPAB I thought would be perfect with a better chorus, some songs on this are the same way. Regardless I love this though.
Top Dawg and I have been DMing since I called him out for all this mysterious second album bullshit. I know things.