Thundercat - It Is What It Is ALBUM REVIEW

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I’ve been a Thundercat fan for a while now. I first found him through Flying Lotus’s music and albums and as a part of Kendrick Lamar’s band for To Pimp a Butterfly, and I’ve been in love ever since. His solo projects have always been a little lacking to me, though. It’s been style over substance, in my personal opinion. When It Is What It Is was announced, I was feeling excited about it. I have always enjoyed Thundercat’s solo projects, but they’ve never had any replay value to me. I’m hoping that It Is What It Is isn’t that, so let’s get into it and find out.

It Is What It Is is a jazz album with soul, R&B, and hip-hop influences throughout. Like his past albums, Thundercat knows how to set a good atmosphere. He knows how to make a soundscape, and this is shown off in all of its glory in It Is What It Is. One thing that popped out in this that I never really noticed in his other releases is his personality. He’s very funny, and his writing is proof of that! The singles are the stars of the show here, “Dragonball Durag” being my personal favorite. All of the features are put pretty well throughout. The features include Ty Dolla $ign, Childish Gambino, Zack Fox, and Lil B, among others. This is mainly Thundercat’s record, so I was pretty surprised by all of it. It’s very known that Thundercat is a creative musician, but it’s put in a brand new light for this new decade.

I enjoyed It Is What It Is quite a bit. It’s essentially more Thundercat, but for some reason, the stars aligned for me to enjoy this and have more replayability than its predecessors. It seems like more of a compilation than an album with a concept, but that’s not bad by any means. There aren’t any bad songs on here, but it’s just not amazing.


7/10


Stream It Is What It Is here

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