The New Toronto 3, Tory Lanez’s (born Daystar Peterson) fifth studio album arrives at the perfect time for the ascending star. For a couple of years now, Lanez has frequented many Spotify curated hip-hop playlists, and become a favorite among youth fiending for trap beats and auto tuned rapping. Since a large majority of the world has shut down in response to the vicious spread of COVID-19, Lanez has been hosting “Quarantine Radio” on his Instagram Live; playing music, interacting with fans and hosting guests (including a bevy of adult entertainment actresses and performers, and Drake). The recurring event has been a major hit, as hundreds of thousands of users tune into each airing to distract from the fear, anxiety, and general boredom of life in 2020.

Tory Lanez is a versatile artist, able to rap skillfully, flow effectively and sing with a sultry auto tuned howl that can evoke a teenage Chris Brown. However, for too much of the album it feels as though he is free styling or simply writing the first lyrics that come to his mind. As a result, the project suffers from an onslaught of uninteresting flexes, misogynistic disses at faceless women, and shallow descriptions of the pain he suffered in his youth. There’s no reason to doubt that Lanez has experienced pain, but his poor writing leaves the listener desiring more than the prose in which he delivers his raps.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t highlights. The early album cut, “Stupid Again”, is a no-frills banger where Lanez deploys an interesting flow over hard-hitting, orchestral trap production. “Who Needs Love” should be a contender for song of the summer with a proficient, clean beat accented by pretty guitar strings, a catchy chorus and a light, fun vocal performance by the Toronto rapper. “Do the Most” is a slow-burning head-bobber that strikes a comfortable balance between hard and soft.

Most impressive of all is “Adidas”, where Lanez displays his capabilities as a writer with a reflective, down-tempo track full of imagery that gives us a glimpse of the man who is Daystar Peterson. He writes, “The devil on my shoulder, it’s getting colder in this basement”, showing, not telling, the listener a more complex side of himself.

Songs like “Adidas” provide a humble backdrop, balancing out the album and clearing room for Lanez to lean on his braggadocio. It’s a shame that there are so few moments like these on Toronto 3. As a result, these bludgeoning, up-tempo trap numbers tip the scale toward tiresome and vapid overconfidence. Songs like “Coldest Playboy”, “Dope Boy’s Diary”, “Back in Business” and “D.N.D” are too indistinct when trying to recall any memorable moment on each. “Letter 2 the City”, which interpolates Scorpion’s “Is There More”, and “MSG 4 GOD’s CHILDREN” invoke Drake post-Views album cuts with washed out vocal samples and metered, pseudo-introspective rapping. This is a low bar, and Lanez doesn’t even come close to clearing the hurdle.

Lanez aims shots at an unnamed ex-girlfriend a nauseating amount of times over the course of the album’s 44 minutes, turning a common and sometimes empowering rap flex into desperate and cringe-inducing griminess. These moments poke holes in even the album’s best tracks. On “Who Needs Love”, Lanez drops the offensive and contradictory line “You could fuck a thousand n*****, only thing that’s finna be hurt is your pussy, ho”. This is just one of many problematic moments aimed at women on this album. They may make Lanez feel better about himself, but they scream insecurity and a bitterness toward an entire gender. Concerning to say the least.

Tory Lanez is talented, and his appeal shines through occasionally. But for the most part, he seems as though he would benefit greatly from sitting down and thinking about the vocals he chooses to lay on each record. A catchy flow and trendy production will only keep him relevant for so long. Until he starts to produce memorable music, he will go just as quickly as he came, similarly to many of his contemporaries in music’s battle for the short attention spans of distracted youth. For now, he is taking advantage of his moment, but it will extinguish quickly if he continues to disappoint with unrewarding bodies of work like Toronto 3.