So glad the cover isn't that ragged guy in the car

Wikipedia had me fuming

Yea its def better mixed. But slightly. Dark fantasies master is insane but the songs are so good it literally didnt matter. It aint too bad on this but i can tell there was a struggle handling these tracks

Just realized we didn’t get the O Rod feature

my review: solid 8.5/10

I'll start with the bad news

The album is engineered and arranged/sequenced badly

This mix is dogshit, first off. The album had a lot of AMAZING production that I think would've benefited from a clean mix, and from an engineering job that made instrumental breaks longer so we could appreciate the really good production. It would've helped fit the puzzle together thematically too, since his intent for a more psychedelic and cerebral experience should've warranted a more careful, layered experience than the massive crushing wall of sound we got.

I think the mood shifts across this album are very jarring at times. They do work sometimes, but I think moments like I KNOW, PARASAIL, and MY EYES would've landed MUCH harder all back to back

(i would've liked some more travis oooooooohhh ahhhhhhhhs too but that's less of a criticism and more of a preference)

Some curation and direction would've been dope

I think what makes this feel like Owl Pharaoh is that Travis is just doing a lot of dope stuff and throwing it at a wall based around a loose concept. Sure it worked on his debut tape, but this album was advertised as something disciplined in direction and theme. Once again, the idea of a utopia and its connotations kinda had the work cut out for Travis in making the album something strong in theme and message. But overall it just feels like Astroworld rejecting pop norms. (on paper at least, this isn't astroworld at all)

Bro had better bars and great singing(where the f*** are the hooks on this btw) but he still hasn't really taken the main idea and based his writing on it. He also barely addressed anything personal

As for the features and collaboration, some curation would've been cool. Having a million S-tier features running around and doing their thing is cool for slaps but it doesn't help the album, once again, feel like anything more than a AAA mixtape. Stripping back on features, finding new people, even utilizing the familiar differently would've been great. Tyler can do it, why not Trav?

(The fact that leaks and old songs are on here is not a problem. Listening to leaks is our fault, and all Travis albums have had leaks on them. Him not rewriting a lot of them IS an issue)

What do I Love?

The production is f***ing SICK

Holy f***. Arpeggios, sample chops, crazy ass beat switches, amazing string arrangements, synth play, background vocals, wow wow wow wow. That is where the real level up was because some of these choices are things I rarely hear in rap, and I'm hungry for more. Modern Jam, Sirens, Looove, and Delresto all have some some of the best sounds i've heard from travis EVER. Even the more conventional bangers are lush and well layered, especially MELTDOWN and I KNOW ? The sentimental moments have some classic simp Travis, especially My Eyes.

Travis is HUNGRY.

This guy has no clue what direction to go in so he jsut decided to spaz at every moment. He has some of his best flows on this album, definitely his best bars, and he has some inventive vocal inflections that make me feel like he's screaming at my face. I f***ing love how he came on this album, especially compared to how much more blase Astroworld felt. And thank f***ing christ he started dissing the f*** out of Rocky, that beef was getting stale for a moment.

Every feature came through

What the f*** was happening on this album. People came at me left and right. I felt like Kanye was seconds from coming out. SZA was belting her ass off and Beyonce brought a GREAT art house vibe to her song. Carti sounded like a demon dragging me to hell. Drake was MAD as f***. Teezo was on some freddie mercury s***. Dave Chappelle was on some dean blunt s***. James Blake was working his work everywhere. Kid Cudi remains ass but he did alright.

Yeah, that's it

TLDR: Travis continues to lack an ability to provide direction and development in the songwriting department, and the mix/engineering work on this album was boo-fucking-boo. Luckily,everyone decided to put their heads together and push s*** to the f***ing max and keep s*** balls to the wall. No clue how they didn't manage to pull off some kind of cohesive theme for this

Mike Dean tweaked that s*** stoned out his mind today in the final hours, cut him some slack

Track 2 incredible what the F***

Then, a few songs are Yeezus-adjacent, not the whole albums

and you’re even cringier because you’ve been in this thread since drop complaining about what you dont like

the f*** is beyonce doing

her thing

Bad Bunny

His rapping on this really surprised me. Man is spitting front to back

Idk I'm 5 songs in and he hasn't missed and this is my 1st listen.

IM H****

Takes a giant s*** on astro and i been itt praising tf outve it

The beginning of the album is so fire then falls off sadly

good album

Beyonce needs to stop rapping for real

Stopppp

Anybody who listens to real rap will tell you it’s not it

I always wondered why p never laced drake with any fire beats but makes sense now

this album not having a theme is a huge fumble

He's doing Ye's vocal inflections from that album and all that, even using certain flows. His verse on Lost Forever even got a Ye-adjacent cadence on there