The Brown Boy himself, Canadian XO artist NAV is back with what is being billed as his debut studio album. You may recognize NAV for several reasons: for one, he is signed to XO, the record label that The Weeknd is part of, but also because on this very blog, I’ve covered both his self-titled debut mixtape, as well as his and Metro Boomin’s collaboration mixtape “Perfect Timing.” NAV dropped both of those projects in 2017, and towards the end of the year, he released “Wanted You,” which became his first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and he opened 2018 by releasing the single “Freshman List.”
Now, with how often I listen to NAV’s songs, you’d think I’m a big fan of his. The thing is, I’m not necessarily a “fan,” it’s just that both projects had a few tracks that I’ve gravitated towards very heavily, and I’ve found myself giving them a lot of repeat listens. Even though NAV has several songs that I absolutely love, I find that he unfortunately just hasn’t been able to put it all together for the duration of a project. His self-titled mixtape, while it had some songs that I can vibe to, felt too ordinary, from NAV’s rather basic vocals to his very cheesy lyricism, and while he had an ear for moody, ethereal production, he really didn’t have much versatility as a vocalist. That rang even more true on “Perfect Timing,” where again, NAV had a few cool songs to vibe to, but otherwise seemed to repeat himself over and over; his lyrics went from cheesy to just bland, his vocal inflection became far more boring and monotone, and he seemed to waste some pretty damn good Metro Boomin production. So, at this point, a lot is riding on this project, because while NAV is a good producer, this album will be a true test as to whether or not he can actually be an interesting vocalist. Let’s find out:
Reckless Intro: How does NAV open this new album? By basically talking about the same tired topic that he’s discussed all throughout his previous albums: his reckless lifestyle of drugs, money, and sex. Great. And it seems like NAV establishes right from the beginning of this song that no amount of autotune or odd filters will make his vocals interesting. And, other than that, the track feels pretty weak even by his standards. The hook is nothing special and the production, even if it’s moody, it’s not very sticky. Not a great start to the album.
Never Change: NAV talks here about how he feels old because apparently, 28 is old in Lil Uzi Vert years, but he talks about how he doesn’t want his “rockstar life” to end. And again, what really bothers me about this song is that he legitimately repeats lines, word for word, from his previous songs. And look, I actually didn’t mind NAV’s vocals on his previous projects, even if they were somewhat robotic and ordinary, but I guess NAV decided to add more filters to his voice to make him sound more emotional or something? I’m not quite sure but said filters end up coming off as more annoying than emotional, and the production just feels very bland. This is not going well to start off.
Hold Your Hand: A song about a girl who has been leeching off of NAV for money for “financial reasons” only to use it for pointless things (because, you know, originality and NAV apparently don’t mix), I literally feel like I’ve heard this song SEVERAL times over already because it literally sounds like a lot of what NAV has done before. And it sounds like he copied and pasted the instrumental of the last few songs, used the same weak autotuned vocals that just come off as more annoying than anything, and just thought it was fine. And while it might seem clever that he sings the titles of pretty much all of his songs on the outro of this one, it honestly isn’t, because it feels like he’s repeating himself again. Ugh, next.
Faith (ft. Quavo): Another song about a girl, this time one who he wants to earn the trust of (because, ya know, he didn’t explore anything like that before…oh, hello, “Held Me Down!”), NAV brings in Quavo from Migos for the track (because I guess being an XO artist means that you automatically get big co-signs even if you’re the least interesting of the bunch?). That said, this song doesn’t even really work as a vibe to me, because it just can’t shake that it sounds like a bunch of other songs that he’s done. Admittedly, the hook isn’t too bad, and Quavo’s vocals mesh decently with this one, but it just can’t shake that it’s a really boring song that feels under-written, undercooked, and just plain bland. And of course, because he needed to artificially lengthen the runtime, he did that slowdown thing at the end FOR THE ENTIRE CHORUS. Can we just move away from this one? Great, thanks.
Champion (ft. Travis Scott): Another flex song, this time featuring Travis Scott, this one does feel a bit more upbeat and more like a turn-up jam. I do like Travis’s vocals here, but once again, this feels like literally everything that NAV has done before. NAV himself is the worst part of the track, because for one, his higher-vocals just come off as really annoying and somewhat strained, and some of his lyrics on here are just laughably bad. NAV, I don’t think anyone wants to know that you had sex to Future’s song “Mask Off” (why that song, by the way? Really? That was the best you could come up with?). Seriously, this is just becoming tedious. Let’s just get through the rest of this.
Glow Up: Hmm, I wonder, is this song that called “Glow Up” gonna be about, A. a lightbulb, B. the sun, or C. NAV talking about how much fame has changed him? Well, if you answered C…well, duh, of course, it’s not about a lightbulb. In all seriousness, NAV literally opens up this track the same way that he ended the last cut. Yeah, that’s how basic this one is. And look, I know he collaborates with Lil Uzi Vert a lot, but it kinda sounds like he’s doing an Uzi impression on this one (and a pretty damn bad one, at that). He tries to jump into a higher register here, to very little success, and once again, NAV is no lyrical genius, so it’s not like he’s telling us anything that exciting here (in fact, considering that he says things like “Said that she don't got no boyfriend, but sure / I grabbed her ass, and she call me a perv / Opened her legs, so I had to insert,” I never want to have story time with NAV). Next!
Just Happened: Right, another song about a soured relationship. NAV, if I want to vibe to sad songs about lost relationships, I’ll listen to your boy The Weeknd. Just saying. Anyway, if you were like me and you thought the last song sounded like NAV jacking Lil Uzi Vert’s sound...well it sounds like he’s jacking the sound of several artists here. I can’t put my finger on whether or not it’s a dollar-store version of Drake, Migos, or Travis Scott, but the fact that it sounds like a discount version of any of those artists should tell you how bland and unoriginal it is. The basic trap beat and monotone vocals just feel sleep-inducing, and some of the lyrics are terrible, for example, the line “When I lost you feel like I lost one of my kidneys.“ I get his songs are sad, but come on, that’s TOO sappy…and plus, you can live without a kidney. Ugh, this is getting really bad, let’s just move on.
Wanted You (ft. Lil Uzi Vert): The big single that dropped before this album, NAV once again collaborates with Lil Uzi Vert (who I may point out has not quite had successful collaborations with NAV before) for the sake of flexing. Yayyyyyyy. Anyway, I was admittedly somewhat interested in this track, because I was hoping NAV would do right with it, given that it was good enough for him to release it as a single. Nope. It’s just a slightly brighter version of all the other songs on here. NAV’s still damn boring, his hook doesn’t stick whatsoever, and even if Uzi’s vocals on his verse are pretty good, the unfortunate part is that you have to get past a whole NAV verse and a hook to get to it. I wouldn’t recommend it.
With Me: NAV talks on this cut about how he wants a girl to vibe with him. I know, I know, you probably weren’t expecting that. And literally, I feel like NAV deserves to win an award for unoriginality at this point because man, he is literally just copying and pasting the same style, sound, flow, and vocals at this point. And with lyrics as laughably silly as “My belly was hurting now I order extra shrimp,” it’s not like he’s winning anything for his writing either. It’s honestly ridiculous at this point, I thought this album would at least be good for a vibe, but instead, it’s a test to see just how long it will take me to lose my sanity.
EAT (ft. Gunna): Yep, another flexing song. If it’s not about a girl, it’s about the come-up and the luxury. This one features an artist named Gunna. No idea who that is, but he doesn’t really have much of a distinct sound. And again, even though NAV tries to have a somewhat more sad inflection on his vocals here, THE SONG LITERALLY SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME AS ALL THE OTHER SONGS!!!!!! NAV is supposed to be a great producer, I have to wonder if this album was just a bet between him and the other guys at XO to see if he could possibly make an album where pretty much every song has the same beat. He’s winning so far, I know that.
Freshman List: At first, I thought this would be the most interesting song lyrically (I know that’s not saying much but still) in that it’s essentially a diss towards XXL and their annual “Freshman List” (in case you haven’t heard, NAV doesn’t want to be a XXL Freshman and basically says “fuck XXL” at this point), but I would’ve liked the song a bit more if it didn’t feel so bland and emotionless like pretty much everything else on the album. I feel like I’ve heard this kind of song a bunch of times on his previous projects, and I feel like this whole “Freshman List” thing is hardly used. It would’ve been interesting if he based the song more around that concept, but instead, he just seemed to do that to get people talking about an otherwise bland song. Good thing this is almost done.
What I Needed / Daheala Outro: This album ends with what may be a shoutout to co-producer Daheala, but lyrically. it just sounds like another love song. At first, it reminded me of “Dark Queen” by Lil Uzi Vert…but then it reminded me of all of the other songs on this album. When you’re rapping about the same exact things in every single song, you’re gonna have to come through with something interesting in terms of either vocals or production. NAV comes through with neither: he still sounds very bored (outside of the autotune-filters and all that jazz) and the production does little to vary itself from the rest of the album. And it should be obvious, but NAV is not nearly interesting enough to handle a 5-minute song. Why this song is that long, I don’t know, but I’m just glad this damn album is over.
Woooooooowwwwwww…wow wow wow wow wow…I never thought in a million years that I would review an album and literally dislike every single song on it. I never thought I would dislike an album so much that, under "least favorite tracks" I would write “all of them,” and under "favorite tracks" I would write “none of them.” Low and behold, NAV has taken the fall for everyone and released what is easily the worst album in his short discography thus far. Even on his self-titled tape and his “Perfect Timing” tape, there were at least a few tracks I listened to and continued to enjoy a lot simply for the sake of a vibe. I couldn’t vibe with these. They literally all sounded the same to me, from the basic trap beats to NAV’s bland vocals to the corny lyrics, it just felt like I couldn’t even recommend this for a vibe. I just…I have to wrap this up here, this album is atrocious, please don’t torment yourself by listening to it. There’s a glut of trap-rap albums out there that are far better than this (because it’s not hard to do), and unless NAV finds some way to switch his style or make his current style more interesting, I don’t see him putting it all together for the duration of a project anytime in the near future. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hate this. I wanted to find something in it that others didn’t, but I couldn’t.
I need to go sleep now, bye.
Favorite tracks: None of them. I can’t lie, there was not one song I liked on this thing.
Least favorite tracks: Literally all of them. I’m not even kidding. I had each one listed as a “least favorite.”
Rating: Awful (actually, can I go lower? No? Damn.)
No comments:
Post a Comment