What Is SO good about this trae album?
Bsides
4,244 Posts
Honestly, im trying to see it, but alot of the beats straight up suck. And not even in a good way like d4l.
Comments
I don't know, maybe you ought to have a BE-IN with the album,
stop all the inner-chatter and auto analysis and just try to
be with Trae for a bit.
Some random thoughts:
There are a few of the beats that are kind of thin. I just took that
as they're not trying to clubb you over the head with that particular
element. To me some of the songs would still work with hi-hat only,
because there's some good personal/confessional style going on.
That said, in the car I think the low end sits just right, requiring
no extra adjustment of sound eqipment.
If I were to complain about the music I would complain about some
of the simplistic keyboard lines - but that never stopped anybody
from listening to Wu-Tang.
It's a dark album. And that's too easy because the cover art kind of
tells you it's dark. But most of the things here are in a minor key.
One triumph seems to be that even with all the guest spots, it still
very much sounds like Trae's album. Sometimes when you have a hi-profile
guest all the sudden it sounds like one of their songs throw in the middle
of somebody else's album. Especially when the guest is Three-6.
But it stays consistent.
The one exception is when Trae borrows the Young Joc flow for
"In The Hood" - but it features Young Joc, and so it's almost like
a remix, or a cover version.
I like how DJ Paul gets real specific about his equipment
in his "Cadillac":
"Chandelier, hanging from the top
Fish tank, lit up in the glass box
But I had to put, the toy fish[/b] in it
Cause the real ones died, from the kick box bitch"
So consider that for a second. To me it seems like you are given
three choices - Don't Ride At All - Ride And Die - or Ride as a
Toy Fish[/b] with no will of your own.
To the unitiated, the Face album had 1-2 bangers and the rest were just album cuts. But unlike most rap albums i come across, the album cuts could stand on their own as very solid songs....In short is was a good album becuase it was full of good songs, not just because it had one big hit.
I feel the same way with Restless; 'Pop Trunk' 'Swang' & 'Cadillac' have (at least regional) mass appeal, and the majority of the rest of the album contains really solid tracks ('Restless' is my jam) that do not reek of the stench of 'album filler' that engulfs most cd's.
But...there is no doubt that Trae's album is very much a "H-Town" album with beats and production to match. That's not a bad thing, but if you don't like H-Town rap, it probably isn't gonna be your cup of lean.
and now i will likely get a plethora of 'disconnected" greamlins from archaic for even admitting a tone of "its not the best thing evar, how dare you question Trae".
go sooners.
I just saw people on here talking about it like its the second coming and then i heard it and the beats were wack.
I already had pop trunk wave though, which i think is probably the best song on there.
im gonna give it another shot in the car though. Thanks for your thoughts,.
And taking a quick stab at what makes Restless so good to me and many others...
Trae as an MC/rapper, combines all of the realness that any serious fan should want - a convincing voice, a vicious flow, a wide-ranging versatility when it comes to patterns and deliveries, classic and timely topics, and has his heart is dutifully involved at all times.
It's a practically a flawless performance by him over the course of 18 tracks.
The criticisms towards the album have been that...it's not Houston enough, the same stuff that was said about Cham's Sound of Revenge, mostly-beat related...some aren't sure that the remixed Swang does the og justice...Jim Jones should have at least cut out the awkward adlibs, if not his entire contribution...not enough Z-Ro...and that's about it.
Notice that none of that takes any shots at Trae's vocals.
He's the truth.
Yeah, trae's pretty good. But i didnt like alot of the beats on the cham album either, so mabye its just not for me. Im gonna give it a few more spins though in either case. This wasnt meant to be an open hatting session, so thanks for coming with reasonable replies.