It's a good album, but it's clearly not Lupe on many songs in terms of lyrical theme and vibe. His first two albums are a lot more soulful and this one ranks third in that as well as quality.
It's different from his past stuff, but is much more up my alley. I only like a handful of songs from his past work. I wasn't even anticipating this until I heard The Show Goes On.
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/singl...trey-songz--out-of-my-head-prod-miykal-snoddy This songs not bad, just so not Lupe
Pretty disappointing on first listen. I felt as though most of the tracks aside from the ones that are already officially released were filler. But hey, there are a couple that could potentially make this a big hit and maybe if that happens he'll have more leeway to do what he wants next time.
Fans are afraid of the opposite too. That some songs will be hits and Atlantic will say "SEE! You did things our way and look how good things turned out!" A lot of critics confuse Lupe's lack of commercial mainstream success for an inability to do so. He plainly states he could release crazy hits (Nothing On You?) but that's just not the type of songs he likes to make. All in all, I do hope it does well! It's pop enough to reach a wide audience who haven't been looking for Lu.
I've listened to every song about 3-5 times. I like a lot of them, but the all the auto tuned hooks all sound the same to me. Regardless, this album is pleasing to my ears. That's all I can ask for, haha.
I'll be glad for him too if he achieves greater commercial success, and I think he probably will now with the right choice of singles and Atlantic behind him. With some of the songs here he's achieved pretty much a perfect balance between what his existing fans love him for and really strong, appealing hooks and beats, but there are others that seem very heavily compromised and that's a shame even with him having been up front about it.
Right now, I hate MDMA for ruining 3 songs . Lu's verses are pretty solid, but these hooks are garbage. Trey Songz too... John Legend and Skylar Grey are examples of good guest artists. People who can actually fucking sing. But I get that it's not Lupe's fault. Like Dean said, this album's possible success may give him more freedom in the future (like Linkin Park and ATS).
I would have said yesterday it was good but now I don't know, I don't mind the snyth beats at all but the autotune is, wtf?
Words I Never Said, Beautiful Lasers, Coming Up and All Black Everything were the only ones I liked. Every hook on the album is horrible except maybe Words I Never Said (am a John Legend fan a bit, but goddamn that chorus is boring). Overall, pretty bad, don't want to hear again.
The brackets were probably a bit out of place, but if it's really that impossible for you to figure out (and I suspect that you're just picking apart my grammar/phrasing/whatevs): I meant that I liked the hook on Words I Never Said, and though I am a John Legend fan usually, I thought the hook he did on his respective song Never Forget Something Something is pretty fucking boring.
Really different from his older stuff but I love Letting Go Till I get There All Black Everything Never Forget You
The album is a pretty big disappointment for Lupe standard. A rapper of his caliber can do so much better, and we've seen that before. A lot of the songs sound very rushed and unfocused, like not a lot of thought went into writing them. I won't hold any of that against Lupe though because if there's anyone to blame for all this then it's Atlantic. But despite all that I still enjoyed the album. Yeah, he dumbed it down a little for the the mainstream listeners, had a few radio-friendly joints here and there... but it still a pretty good album, just not great for Lupe's standard.