Author: Om Prajapati This is going to be the start of series of articles where I listen and review albums that have been recently released and catch my attention. The albums don’t necessarily have to be from any particular genre but I feel as though they will most likely be majority hip-hop and R&B albums. If you have any album you want me to check out and listen to feel free to let me know.
To start this series off I’m going to talk about Travi$ Scott's sophomore album “Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight”. This is Travi$ Scott’s second studio album that was released September 2nd 2016. This album follows his first album “Rodeo” which had a lot of success and was actually critically acclaimed for its very artsy, polished and melodic trap beats. The songwriting was also memorable with singles as big as “Antidote” and “3500”. I personally thought that the album was very well done. I had very high expectations for Travis Scott’s new album and I can’t say my expectations were exactly met. Overall, how I feel about this album was that this was a step backwards for Travis Scott. This was not the innovative, artsy and edgy trap album I was looking for but was rather a muddy sounding, underproduced and generic album that really sounds like throwaway song ideas jumbled together. The album has a few highlights like “Coordinate” and “Goosebumps” but overall I can’t say I was impressed but really disappointed. If you DID like the album however, I would recommend Young Thug’s new album “No, my name is Jeffery”. If you’re REALLY looking for a rating out of 10, I would give this album a 5.5/10. Continue to read for a real track by track analysis. Birds ironically starts us off with the intro track “The Ends” featuring a living hip-hop legend Andre 3000. If I said I loved this track, I’d be lying. It starts off with this really dragged out and annoying intro where Travis sings with these obnoxious vocal effects. But as soon as the sinister bell melody kicks in with the unique drums the songs really picks up. Travis flows his arrogant and egotistical bars like “We ain’t sending shots we launching missiles” over the beat. The hook is dramatic and I feel fits the song well but all the mixing done to it is just unnecessary. It was distorted and messy, when it could have been this cinematic epic moment. But instead we get this muddy overly mixed mess. Andre saves this song with his thought provoking bars and rides the beat well. The glitchy vocal effects are well done and not overused. Overall it’s a decent song but not exactly the best way to start an album. The album continues with the song “Way back” Ft. Kid Cudi. This song is one great song idea and one horrible song idea jammed together. Travis is known for switching it up in his songs with a beat change that, when done well, can be extremely effective and slick. “Oh my / Dis side” being a great example. This is not one of those songs. It’s a complete mess and it simply doesn’t work. In the first half Travis raps about how he thought him and his friends went “way back” and were very close but now they’ve started acting differently around him so now he needs them to get “way back”, kinda corny if you ask me but it works. The first half of this song has a great beat. The bass is really distorted and gritty and the simply drum loop carries the song along. What I really like about it is the vocal sample of the man singing that repeats throughout the song which I thought was a great touch. The second half of the song is a sloppy mess. The main problem I have with it is the production, there are just so many elements to the beat and a lot of them don’t compliment each other. The album continues with the bass heavy intoxicating banger “Coordinate”. In the song Travis repeats this addictive hook on mixing drugs. With the synth melodies and the thumping 808 bass the song has great swing and bounce. The beat is really simple and Travis isn’t exactly showing any noteworthy bars but the heavy bass and the catchy hook is enough to save this song. Then comes one of the worst cuts from the album. Look, I love Kid Cudi, but he completely ruined the track “Through the late night”. Repeating the phrase “All through the late night” and him attempting to sing with his gross voice just turned me away from this song. The beat of this song is nothing note worthy either. What bothers me the most about this song is the corny and lame attempt to incorporate a french phrase into the hook “S'il vous plaît, don’t you hate”...that doesn’t even make sense? The album continues with the track “Biebs in the trap” with the up and coming Toronto artist “Nav”. In this song Travis basically lets Nav own the track. The song has some great sounding synths and a hard hitting beat. The song is about an encounter with a girl that invited the artists to her condo party where she is way in over her head and does cocaine. Nav keeps his hook and verse simple. It’s a little repetitive but it’s a party song so I can’t complain about that too much. Nav doesn’t have any bars at all if I’m being honest. He kept his lyrics catchy and simple. I was even less impressed when I realized he was stealing Drake’s flow in “Madonna”. But when it comes to Travis, his verse is just garbage. It’s choppy, annoying with these corny and almost cringe worthy lyrics that are unacceptable, even for his standards. Track 6 is one of the better cuts from the album called “SDP”. Very smooth production with Cassie’s sweet voice carrying the song along. No big complaints, it’s a nice interlude. There isn’t much to say about it as there isn’t really a verse. Now comes the worst track in the whole album. For some reason this track is completely unbearable. The bells are annoying and there’s no substance to the song. He has no bars, just generic lame lyrics like “shoutout my jeweler, made my chain look like fruit loops”. Cringe worthy at best. The drums don’t really have a bounce to them either. I skip the track every time. The album then continues with the track “Outside”. Another mediocre at best track. Having 21 Savage featuring does not help at all. His voice is oddly auto-tuned which sounds weird and doesn’t suit the song at all. The beat is so simplistic it gets annoying, no variation whatsoever. A headache to listen to. Track 9 “Goosebumps” Ft. Kendrick Lamar is one of the best songs in the whole album. The hook is really catchy and meaningful. Travis sings “I get those goosebumps every time you come around, you ease my mind you make everything feel fine” which very heartfelt and poetic in a weird way. The beat just switches between a loop and a sample but the very active and sliding 808 keeps the song going. Once kendrick lamar comes on this song gets to a whole other level. Kendrick spits his complex verse with ease, riding the beat very smoothly. Hands down best verse on the album and probably the best song. Track 10 “First take: Ft. Bryson Tiller is a track I have a lot of mixed feelings for. The beat, to me is really simple and effective. Bass heavy and smooth with very nicely spaced out drums that carry the beat through. The sample was manipulated beautifully. After listening to the original sample I can tell they worked really hard to flip it the way they did. Everything seems great right? ...But then comes the hook. It’s not horrible but it doesn’t suit the song. It seems way too slow and it’s mixed really oddly. It has this auto-tune and a lot of reverb and delay. I thought the part where Travis sings “You think too much we all know” was so catchy and well done it could have been the hook. The lyrics actually have value in this song and weren’t just thrown together. I can tell Travis is really talking about a girl in his life singing “Just let our love take its course”. How adorable. Bryson tiller kills his verse, singing over the beat like a complete pro and rapping along with multiple catchy flows. Everything but the hook seems great, so what’s the problem? The ad libs. Jesus christ the ad libs. These annoying little phrases Travis puts between lyrics are obnoxious and sometimes don’t even make sense. Like when he says “When you’re around me you’re safe” and then you hear him shout “IT’S LIT”. Like really? It was such a problem it almost ruined the song for me. Not “lit”. “Pick up the phone”, track 11, has the best beat in the whole album no doubt. The caribbean steel drum made this beat really unique. It had a lot of percussion that usually isn’t used in hip-hop, like this odd cowbell that suits the song well. Then there’s that little shout sample that loops through the song also sounded cool. The hook is by far the catchiest and it isn’t just nonsense lyrics. Young Thug isn’t exactly my favorite rapper but he does good in this song. I felt his unusual voice fit the song well. I felt as though this is what Travis WANTED the album to be. A great song and I can see why it’s the single of the album. Track 12 “Lose” is also a song I have mixed feelings for. I think Travis killed hook, very smooth and addictive but the beat is really weird. I didn’t think the brass sounded good, to be it was way too slow and it just seemed out of place for a song like this. The verse was what every verse was on this album, terrible but bearable. Guidance, the second last track of the album, features another up and coming toronto artist Roy Woods. Roy Woods has proven that he has heart in his voice with his other songs but that doesn’t matter because he adds nothing to this song at all. His only contributions are some lame adlibs at the end of the song, you’ll know what i’m talking about. Regardless, the song has a very nice dancehall swing to it with a very simple and repetitive beat. The whole dancehall vibe makes me think that Roy Woods must have had some writing credits but Travis decided to not use natural singing talent and use his voice that is stripped of all emotion and drowned in vocal effects instead.The song doesn’t have much substance. I mean it isn’t horrible, it’s Travis Scott attempting to make a dancehall song and it doesn’t work that well. The album ends off with “Wonderful” featuring the man himself, The Weeknd. The Weeknd is a singer from Toronto. How many times have I said this already? Anyways, I can’t say this is one of my favourite songs. What I can’t deny is that these two artists compliment each other and have some chemistry. Travis’s monotone raspy voice hard voice contrasts The Weeknd’s smooth voice well. The beat starts off very basic with a synth loop and these lifeless drums. As the song approaches the halfway point it becomes more dynamic but I can’t say it caught my attention at all. The hook is nothing noteworthy as well. The song isn’t much to take pride in for Travis, like most songs on this album the lyrics have no substance like Travis is just trying to rhyme words. The only reason this is so disappointing is because this is how Travis decides to end his album? With this mediocre song that means nothing? How disappointing.
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