Album Review: “The Beautiful and Damned” by G-Easy

Final Review 8/10

G-Eazy released his third studio album The Beautiful and Damned on December 15th. There’s twenty tracks on it, many of which have different artists making appearances. His album has the same name as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s well-known novel and Gerald has been asked multiple times about the reasoning behind his choice on the name. 

If you haven’t read The Beautiful and Damned novel it’s about a reckless couple in the 20’s who explore the New York nightlife. In an interview with entertainment weekly Gerald said “that’s mirroring my lifestyle, G-Eazy lives this crazy, over the-top lifestyle without consequence, and Gerald is left to clean up the mess every morning.”

The first song on the album is the title song “The Beautiful and Damned” and it sets the whole tone of the album with Gerald rapping about the luxuries of being a celebrity and doing whatever he wants whenever he wants but then having the thought in the back of his mind to slow down or to become a better man. He also mentions in the song how hard it is being a Gemini, which is a repeating topic in a lot of his songs on this album. The second track on the album, “Pray For Me” ties in with the first track. He sings “Talk to the man upstairs, hoping he answers my prayers, Hollywood feel like the jungle, lions and tigers and bears.” Going along with the theme of all the fame being hard to deal with and losing himself. 

The third track on the album, called “Him and I” features his real life girlfriend Halsey, and is about them being the modern day Bonnie and Clyde. This was the second single released after “No Limits” featuring Cardi B and A$AP Rocky. This is one of my favourites on the album just because Halsey and Gerald sound amazing together and it’s just a personal song between the two of them, I love that. 

“No Limits” was Gerald’s hit single about partying, drinking, and doing drugs which the fans liked hearing this side of him as this climbed up quick on the billboard 100 since it’s release but we hear how this lifestyle starts to take a toll on Gerald in other songs on the album. For example, on the fifth track “Sober” featuring Charlie Puth they both sing over a piano, which transitions into a smooth drum beat and they sing of being conflicted with partying and the morning after regretting their decisions. 

On the other hand he has songs like the fourth track “But A Dream” and the sixth track “Legend” where he highlights the luxuries of being a celebrity. “But A Dream” is more personal, there isn’t much to it but a smooth beat behind Gerald’s rapping about how he’s worked for what he’s got. “Legend” is more about him bragging of everything he has and all the parties he goes to and all the girls he gets. The beat behind his rapping is really catchy and you can’t help but move along to it. 

Another one of my favourites on the album is the seventeenth track “Mama Always Told Me”. It’s got a different sound to it compared to all the other songs on the album, more laid back and happy. 

As the album comes to an end the songs calm down a little more and get more deep and Gerald opens up to his fans more. For example in the song “Fly Away” he gives us an insight on his insecurities and how he keeps his walls up high. The last song on the album, “Eazy”, is a song dedicated to himself before he became famous and he pretty much just gives us a run down of how his life went which really gave fans an idea of who Gerald is and he really opens up to fans with this song. 

Overall I loved this album, it flowed really well and his songs are all very well written. I love how he opened up in this album and I think fans can really connect to him more because of it.