Second on Charts, First in Hearts

The only album this summer to stay at number one for more than a week was Travis Scott’s Astroworld (other than Scorpion, of course). Travis Scott is a trap artist known for spacey beats and his creative use of auto-tune. Travis Scott made waves in 2012 with his debut album Rodeo, featuring his most well known song “Antidote”. The hype for his new album has been massive, does Travis Scott live up to it?

While I don’t think it’s AOTY worthy, like the hype may lead you to believe, I enjoyed this album quite a bit. This album to me feels like fast food, in the best way possible. This isn’t the deepest album I’ve ever heard. Travis Scott doesn’t do anything groundbreaking musically either. What makes this album great is how easy it is to listen to. Scott’s beats are bass and reverb heavy, which contribute to the spacey mood of the album, “COFFEE BEAN” being one of my favorites. I also like Scott’s vocals far more than I thought I would. It feels like the auto-tune is used like an instrument instead of a mask for poor vocals, especially on songs like “STARGAZING”. There are also some genuinely beautiful moments on the album, like the synth solo at the end of “WAKE UP” featuring The Weeknd.

There are some aspects to the album I wish were slightly different. This album is packed with beat switches. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, but sometimes it feels unnecessary. The most popular (and my favorite) song on the album has to be “SICKO MODE”, but the beat switches (especially the first one) didn’t add to the song at all. Though not every album needs to be groundbreaking, I still wish Travis tried to challenge himself creatively more than he did. Overall, I thought Astroworld was a fun listen, and I’d recommend it to anyone that enjoys trap.

Scorpion: Best Seller, Boring Listen

Drake is one of the most successful rappers of this decade, accumulating 30 top ten hits in his career. Hits like “Hotline Bling” and “One Dance” seemed to be inescapable when they came out, but Scorpion, Drake’s fifth album, takes it to the next level.

“God’s Plan” smashed the charts early this year, staying at number one for almost three months, and that was only the beginning. When his new album dropped, every single song from the album charted on the Hot 100, four of which in the top ten. “In My Feelings” debuted only at number six, but the popularity of the “In My Feelings Challenge” this summer propelled the song to number one, where it stayed for ten weeks.

Was this album as good as its sales? I don’t think so. The biggest problem I have with this album is its length. No Drake album needs to be anywhere close to 90 minutes long. Drake isn’t dynamic enough to stay interesting for that amount of time. Some of the songs off of this album sound like they were copied and pasted, the only differences between them being their names.

Still, it isn’t surprising why this album was so popular. Songs like “In My Feelings” and “Nice for What”, high charters, are bright spots. I enjoy these songs, “In My Feelings” for Drake’s vocals and “Nice for What” for its beat, sampling, and aggression. Unfortunately for Drake, two songs can’t carry an entire album. Unless you’re already a fan of Drake, I would give Scorpion a pass.