1

Daytona

The career of a talent which flies by before listeners are served a classic project is too often an occurrence. Album after album, the ear yearns for something exceptional and extraordinary. And it is demanded while the artist is still relevant. Following a repertoire of quite respectable releases, Pusha T has hit the big time.

One may have been apprehensive at the thought of a near completed album being scrapped. Less so if Kanye West is the man responsible and is willing to oversee production himself. He lends heavily on sampling to carry each masterpiece to lofty heights and prove once again that this is his forte. It’s the input relayed by Pusha which maintains cohesion, preventing a disjointed collaboration. They manage to mesh luxury and drugs in as authentic a manner as the album artwork. Pusha had the luxury of time, in part, owing to his understanding of the effects of consumption of his product and the need to circumvent the consequences of his dealings. If one ignores the gold faucets and marble tops the still presents any crack house. From the first drug ingested by Whitney Houston, time regressed to borrowed. Despite all the successes and riches one may have, time is invaluable, within it lie all possibilities.

The cadence slows through the 21 minute run – seven tracks in total. In the upbeat opener, If You Know You Know, colloquial terms litter the passages. It’s a walk through his drug dealing past and into his more legal successes, both corporate and in rap. He finds it necessary to lay down his ever-standing rhetoric, executed in clever formation, “Bricklayers in ball shorts/ Coaching from the side of the ball court”.

Following the opener, the album seamlessly settles into The Game We Play. Another drug dealer anthem trotting the prints of a foot soldier. Sprouting the seed laid in the third verse births one of the most chilling realities of dealing: snatching the food from the mouths of a family. While this is both inhumane and selfish, he is the supplier and the demand will be satisfied regardless of the choice he makes. “If you ain’t energized like the bunny for drug money/ Or been paralyzed by the sight of a drug mummy”.

Pusha takes a look at success with the good and ugly it brings on Hard Piano. There’s no voice to deeper sound affluence than the burly Rick Ross. However, his verse simply doesn’t do justice to the marvel in which it’s laid, perhaps the Tefon Don would’ve kept up.

The withdrawal from heroin is likened to the yearning for a lost lover in the sample for the soulful chorus of Come Back Baby. The transition between the chorus and verses is ‘beautiful contrast’, a trademark touch Kanye has perfected since Yeezus.

If the beat switch bridging If you Know You Know and The Games We Play was notable, then the bridge connecting the fourth and fifth is diabolical, soul-pounding. George Jackson is abruptly replaced by high pitch strings oscillating rhythmically to introduce the catchiest song on offer. He pledges vengeance for the murder of his road manager, De’Von Pickett – with religious devotion. Sonically, this is the beginning of the darker tone spanning the second half of the project.

How perfect if Meek Mill had titled his fourth full length, “What Would Meek Do”, the name of this album’s penultimate track in which Pusha would have featured the MMG jailbird. On this track he boasts his riches while Kanye utilizes the platform largely to respond to the controversies he has fueled in the past couple of years.

Infrared lures Drake into a dark corner, perfectly set up for ambush. Parallels are drawn between Drake’s ghost-written music and the Russian influence on Donald Trump’s campaign. The minimal precision with which he ties ideas is the reason he feels he stands apart in this maximalist era.

This is the undisputed Album of the Year.

9.2

2

Honeybloom

The briefly enigmatic figure stepped into the light this year with a music video, short documentaries and the unexpected follow up to Peak. It’s clear he wants the big time and he takes the pathway more likely to lead to that success. The Frank Ocean comparison is slim, the production is lush while parading his versatility. It’s the lyrics with the ability to paint vivid imagery – “The horizon takes a trip along her body” – which make the curly-haired musician truly special.

8.3

3

Soil

Labelled “Pagan Gospel”, one wonders how he rejects the individually tailored genre. He’s a rogue choir boy, eerily spelling words that leave only the most open-minded in congregation. A blessed 40 minute sitting. Nothing stresses our social nature as infatuation, “Whatever makes you cold freezes me”, proximity “if you whisper, only I will hear you”, love “I love you from the space beneath my feet, and beneath that, and beneath that”. If finding the listener’s ear was via the underlyings of the dermis he’d be unchallenged and undefeated.

8.1

4

Astroworld

Travis Scott delivered the most successful lyrically-devoid album from the hip hop genre. It’s his brightest project yet, refreshing in a culture in which depression is glorified. He pitches three relatively respectable attempts at thought provoking writing in the form of STOP TRYING TO BE GOD, ASTROTHUNDER and COFFEE BEAN. This is one of many ways he ensures there’s something for everybody. Another is the use of the album’s features. The variety is endless, Frank Ocean, Juice Wrld, The Weeknd, Gunna, Drake, Swae Lee, James Blake, Migos, 21 Savage and – most secretively – Nav among others. It’s impressive. Where the maximalism succeeds in the music, it equally and oppositely fails in the videos released but that’s for another discussion. For now ASTROWORLD revels in the top 5 albums of the year.

7.9

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