Final Rating: 6/10
This is Chance the Rappers first well known and more mainstream release since his last mixtape in 2013. This is obviously a hip hop album however, it is also very gospel based as well. He incorporates the use of a choir throughout several of his tracks, and it is most definitely one of the albums higher additives.
Overall, this is a fun album that also touches upon emotional aspects as well. I enjoy the fact that this isn’t just your usual up-beat rap album just focused on partying, drugs, alcohol, etc- it touches upon emotion. The problem with this mixtape is that it almost features too much collaboration. Collaborations are awesome because you get to see what two different artists can create while combining different styles however, 11 out of the 14 songs are featuring one or more different artists. It is somewhat off putting because it ponders the idea of, why? Of course collaborations are cool but, isn’t this your mixtape Chance? He should display more of just himself; over majority of the tracks being collaborations is just off putting. Then again, this is a mixtape- not an album. The worst collaboration on this tape was Juke Jam with Justin Bieber. This was a filler track, and did not catch my ear at all. It is a slower track, but there is nothing inspiring or catchy about it. It isn’t that it is poorly produced or a “bad” song, but Bieb’s whiney feature sure as hell isn’t anything special and doesn’t help the song in any way.
Summer Friends sounded extremely distorted and was almost confusing to listen to. The track sounded so unorganized and poorly produced, and was not an attractive listen. With this being said, the following track Blessings made up for it. The track had some awesome dim keyboards, relaxed vocals, and featured brass. The female vocals were an extreme additive to this track, and overlapping of his and her voice was done so well.
The best track on this album hands down, is Same Drugs. This is an absolutely beautiful track about a relationship that obviously is not or did not work out. It is about how the couple are basically both heading in two different directions, and they have both changed however Chance represents this by talking about drugs. He talks about these issues so poetically as he represents drugs, and it just makes the song so clever. The piano in this track is beautiful and goes perfectly with the mood of the track, and I think this strong is extremely relatable as many people grow apart from each other in relationships.
The album is diverse because it touches upon different styles such as a touch of reggae in Angels, EDM in All Night, and gospel basically all around. I think he pulled this off extremely well.
Smoke Break may have just been the worst track on the album. Hey, it did grab my attention but I would have much rather listened to a more boring track like Juke Jam than this. He obnoxiously kept saying in the beginning of the tune “We was just smoking a bowl”, was an instant turn off. The lyrics were stupid i.e “We used to Netflix and smoke”, which says enough. To sum up this track, we get it- you smoke weed. It was just annoying.
All in all, this was a decent album. There are some really great songs on here, some boring ones, and some that are okay.
