$NOT - Beautiful Havoc ALBUM REVIEW

-
I’ve been trying to get into the underground scene lately, and the name $NOT popped up a lot. I gave his mixtape from earlier this year, -TRAGEDY+, a listen and I watched some of his music videos from Lyrical Lemonade too. Both of these were interesting to me, but I guess I wanted them to stand out more. I see the potential, but I didn’t feel like it was realized on -TRAGEDY+. Now, his new debut album, Beautiful Havoc, is here, and hopefully, this potential I saw on his mixtape and videos are realized here. Let’s get into it!

Beautiful Havoc is a hip-hop album with trap influences. Unlike -TRAGEDY+, this album takes more of an emo-rap direction like Lil Peep or Juice WRLD. This isn’t my favorite kind of rap in general, but it never stops me from listening to a project by any means. First, let’s talk about the production. The beats on here are pretty good, and most of them are from producers that I’m hearing for the first time like Donny Katana, Woodpecker, and Level, among others. The features on here is also one of the best batches of 2020 so far to me. Iann Dior seems like he’s getting better and better, Flo Milli brings a lot of energy, and Denzel Curry essentially does his thing. After all, this is $NOT’s album, so how did he do? He did pretty great here, honestly. His beat selection is pretty top-notch too, even if the ‘faded’ sound of the album doesn’t click on every song for me. There is one thing with this album that I feel is lacking, slightly. Like REASON’s debut album from earlier this year, I can’t really connect with it. While it’s nice that $NOT is trying to see what sticks with his sound, it comes without an identity of the project. His delivery is pretty catchy too, though. His flows are pretty catchy, and it’s understandable why “Revenge” has become such a hit. If I had to pick a couple tracks that would be my favorite, they’d be “Toni Braxton” and “Sangria” with Curry.

I really do enjoy Beautiful Havoc, but when I stated at the beginning of this review that $NOT has a lot of potential, I still think that this potential hasn’t been fully realized yet. Both -TRAGEDY+ and Beautiful Havoc make up an effective one-two punch for establishing that he’s on his way to success, but I think he can top both of these releases with just a tiny bit of refinement in production and delivery, even if his delivery is still good on Beautiful Havoc. Nevertheless, I’m excited about his future, and I won’t be forgetting about Beautiful Havoc any time soon.


7/10


Stream Beautiful Havoc here

Spotify

Apple Music

YouTube Music



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lil Yachty - Let’s Start Here. ALBUM REVIEW

-
Image
I gotta keep holding to my promises about reviewing. I always love it when an artist takes a risk with their material. Whether or not it works out, I usually admire the risk and appreciate the fact that any artist can do something out of their comfort zone. Either way, the artist in question today is Lil Yachty, a rapper that has basically become a joke the longer his career’s gone on. However, going into a new genre out of left field isn’t totally new to rap. Childish Gambino jumping into the world of neo-soul with Awaken, My Love! , along with later projects from Mac Miller and Tyler, the Creator having more jazz influences, have proven that turning to a new genre for new ideas has worked out pretty well. Yachty, however, has turned to psychedelic rock in the vein of Tame Impala for this new album, Let’s Start Here. to mark the new chapter of his career. Let’s get into it. Having stuck around with Yachty during the rough patches, I can easily say that Let’s Start Here. is his best
Read more

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation ALBUM REVIEW

-
Image
Just when I think I’m out, I’m pulled back in. Okay, hi again. I’m not saying I’m back for good, but I just hit a stride, and I’m not gonna lie, I miss writing for the fun of it. Anyway, I’ve talked about this band on the site before. I might just have to make a tag to link all their albums together. King Gizzard went on a damn-near-perfect streak of three separate projects last October, and knowing that whatever they did next was a spiritual successor to 2019 fan favorite Infest the Rats' Nest , it’d certainly be up my alley. Now, we have PetroDragonic Apocalypse , which I will just shorten it to that because of the long-ass album title you can see at the top. It’s a mouthful, I know. Either way, let’s get into it. PetroDragonic Apocalypse sees the group move into a genre they’ve dabbled in before: metal. Throwing in dashes of thrash, speed, and even stoner metal helps make the Aussie band’s most chaotic, in-your-face, and probably entertaining project as a whole yet. Environment
Read more

Cities Aviv - Working Title for the Album Secret Waters

-
Image
Still mad that I never got the vinyl release of his last album. Every time I review something that ended up being a surprise release, I always talk about how nice surprise releases are. Even if it’s by an artist you’re not a giant fan of, a surprise drop is always something cool. Memphis rapper Cities Aviv is one I got real excited about. Then again, I was always gonna be excited to see what he did next after his two-hour-long epic MAN PLAYS THE HORN , which is in my top 10 favorite albums of this year. I would’ve never expected there to be a new album so soon given just how large his last project was. Now, we have Working Title for the Album Secret Waters , a damn good surprise release that genuinely caught me off guard. Knowing that this project is only a fraction the length of HORN , does that addictive, hypnotic sound translate into a shorter project? Let’s tread into Secret Waters . What I think stands out here the most is the production, more specifically the sampling done here.
Read more