Utopia: Is It As Perfect As It Wants To Be?

In the years since Astroworld, Travis Scott has become one of the biggest music artists in the world, his album the culmination of the trap, melodic, and psychedelic subgenres completely taking over not only hip-hop mainstream but mainstream music in general. A listener’s perception of him is likely very different based on how intently they follow him; in the last 5 years, he didn’t stop making music and continues to appear on features along with the occasional single. His features especially though have always been extremely hit or miss, oftentimes straight up boring or inconsequential, dampening the level of excitement you might expect for someone who, at least in the time between his last album and the Astroworld festival tragedy, was considered one of the premier artists in the game by the mainstream audiences. I personally enjoyed enough of his singles to keep myself interested, including “Out West”, “MAFIA”, and “The Scotts”, although I was always willing to concede others’ criticisms that while these songs were enjoyable they were also fairly generic, especially given the extreme oversaturation of trap music. Where Scott really shines though, and what elevates him to being considered a perennial artist, are his album experiences. I personally have not listened to the Owl Pharaoh or Days Before Rodeo mixtapes in full for a long time, and am too young to remember their specific impact as (then Travi$) Scott came up, so I’ll focus a little more on his studio albums, although these mixtapes are important when evaluating his most recent outing. Travis Scott really popped onto the scene with Rodeo in 2015, and although it was not extremely successful on the charts at the time, it has aged beautifully and is widely considered one the, if not the, best modern trap albums of all time. It’s raw, eerie, experimental for the time, and creates an environment in which a listener can get absorbed. It was followed up with an impromptu sophomore album Birdz in the Trap Sing McKnight, an even darker experience where we see him dive further into melodic rap and trying to capitalize on the commercial success he felt he missed out on with Rodeo. A lot of people don’t particularly mention or hold this to the same regard as his other work, but the first time I went through it years ago it far exceeded my expectations and, despite more duds than his last work and an obvious “commerciality” to some songs, there was a time where I held it above his other work bar Rodeo. If almost any other artist in his genre put this album out in 2016, it would’ve been held in higher regard, but sandwiched as a transition in between two distinctly great eras it doesn’t hold up as well. Of course, that following era is Astroworld, designed to attempt to take a listener through a theme park experience of psychedelic trap, a summer album that dawned a plethora of hits that Travis had been chasing and vaulted him to the top of the game. Now, 5 years, a pandemic, and a destructive festival that claimed the lives of 10 people later, Utopia is finally here after endless hype and multiple false starts at a rollout. Does it live up to his previous records, and perhaps more importantly given these factors, does it surpass them?

The answer is… I’m just not sure yet. There’s parts of this album that are technically great: it has mostly solid instrumentals and a different vibe from his previous album which shows some sort of evolution in both rapping and production. For me personally though, purely off of first listen there was a degree of enjoyability that was missing which I’ve come to expect from Travis Scott. It’s obviously not supposed to have factors like say, “replayability” or whatever is associated with that, but I feel like that can’t be the big issue for me when I have really enjoyed darker-sounding albums in the past, especially from Travis. I actually liked that he went back to his artistic roots. This is something that does sometimes change with time though, and has with other works in the past, but there are some criticisms I think will remain even if that happens.

One thing that’s obvious with this album is the looming Kanye West influence over most of the songs, stemming from 3 main sources. Ye and Travis have had a long working relationship, with Travis first getting recognition producing for Kanye on Yeezus and for making music similar to his at the time. The 2 were also kind of part of the same extended family through the Kardashians. Second, a fraction of the songs on the album were formerly Kanye leaks from the early Donda sessions and the sorta-unreleased Donda 2. He doesn’t have a feature verse; maybe they were removed because of his recent controversies (which Travis did not need more of), or maybe they were just abandoned by Kanye and the demo versions weren’t good enough to work off of. Third, even beyond these songs Kanye West has a production or writing hand on around 5ish songs, and his sound is fairly obvious. Given the overwhelming influence on some tracks, either Travis Scott had a bigger part in producing and influencing the sound on Yeezus than we were led to believe or, in an effort to find a new creative direction and go back to his musical roots, he overcorrected and used a formula that was more successful than his at the time while still fitting his vision. The thing is, while the sound does seem to work tonally, it can’t be lauded the same way as Yeezus has been, and not just because it’s the second go of it. 10 years ago, Yeezus’s sound was weird because it was experimental, brash, and somewhat different production wise for Kanye even though he had experimented before while still feeling pretty much Kanye. It cemented his transition out of the 2000’s sound into whatever his 2010’s was. The thing is, I don’t think we can consider the same/similar sound experimental a whole 10 years later. It’s new and polished for Travis Scott as an artist, but for the genre as a whole it doesn’t necessarily push things the envelope some people are claiming it does. The sound production wise still works though, so is there an issue there? Obviously the tribute begs comparison. One thing that sort of encapsulates how conflicted I may feel about parts of the album is the fact that Travis Scott is rapping way more than on any of his other studio albums. I really like that sound, and over the years a lot of the “Travi$ Scott” music I find myself going back to has more of a rap feel to it because, at the time, his voice sounded a little different. The thing is, on Utopia, the more you pay attention to it the more issues you find in it. For example, on the tracks which are reminiscent of Kayne West, Travis just doesn’t stand up rapping wise in comparison to him. Kayne West is a solid lyricist, but not an out of this world one, nor an out of this world rapper often; a big part of what makes these things all-time great for Ye is his personality and bombascity coming through in every moment of his music. Either because he is trying too hard to sound “mysterious” or because he just doesn’t have it, that personality is (on most tracks) not as prominent for Travis, which becomes a bit of a hindrance when it’s more obvious for the vibe of this album. There are points where it feels as if he didn’t put any energy or effort into the delivery of some verses, which we of course have no reason to assume given the time put in, the purposeful vibe of the album, and Travis’ past record when it comes to his own albums. It was a weird mix of being happy he was actually rapping, but not necessarily feeling like it was the best performance he could put out there as an overall artist. It feels like a pretty noticeable complaint persisting through some of the album. However, I kind of expect how much this matters to me to decrease a bit as time goes on and I listen to the songs I enjoy more anyways.

Ok, so that was a lot of digging into a specific criticism, but the reason I’m conflicted is its hard for me to say I didn’t appreciate or even like the album; I just didn’t enjoy it to the degree I felt I should have given the type of vibe Travis Scott seemed to be going for off first listen. When I say I’m conflicted on a lot of the songs, that means there were parts that I really liked. I added way more songs to my rotation than I realized, which means this album may have some legs. To dive into the album a bit, I want to look at certain categories that matter for me when listening to Travis’ music, and then focusing on specific songs and what they did well, bad, or different, before coming back to an overview. As time goes on as I analyze each of these parts and listen to each song, my opinion could very well change to more positive than it already is. Here’s what I think matters in listening to and evaluating a Travis Scott record:

Production

Does it compliment the “goal/theme” of the album? Does it elevate Travis Scott’s efforts? Is it targeted and purposeful? Is there any advancement of the genre, or is there a new building on what already exists? Does it have some semblance of the signature sound of the artist while doing these new things?

Curation

Is there a theme or a soundscape threading the album? Is the length of the album appropriate? Do the features perform well? Do they fit into the album’s purpose? Do they elevate the album? Do they outshine the main artist? What about the sequencing and transitions? Are some elements elevated when listened to in album form?

Flows/Cadence/Delivery

Basically how does the artist sound on the songs? Is there an assortment of flows? Is there a purpose to the way they are? Do they ever get repetitive or boring? Is there something different than on other records of the artist?

Lyrics

When it comes to Travis Scott: are they not utter garbage? Is there at least a few verses where the subject matter, content, or wordplay is in some way different from earlier? Does it feel like there was effort put into it? Is there some gleamable quality, even if it is humorous? Again, I don’t expect conscious or lyrical excellence.

"Replayability"

Am I bumping Travis Scott records in some setting, whether it's for the rest of summer, late nights, social settings, or just usual playlist settings where it is a go-to and heightens those experiences? There’s not too too high of a bar here, but with Travis I felt like it's something he’s accomplished pretty well before, so I thought I’d throw it in here.

​Production	We focused on some of this already, but there is obviously a darker sound to this album than his last album, portrayed by choices like dark synths, subdued drums, generally low mixing and minimal instrumentals… I always admire how Travis takes a more involved hand in his record production… I feel like there’s a lot more to be said here, but not much insightful that hasn’t been said elsewhere. I always find describing production in words a bit hard
Curation	​This album felt like it had less of an encompassing theme than a lot of his other records. Astroworld felt like an eerie Houston summer theme park experience like the one it was named after; Rodeo was the exploration of a budding subgenre by an artist speaking about his come-up and upbringing; Birdz doesn’t fit the mold as much, but there is still an overarching theme of one long dark night in the trap. I really can’t see yet what Utopia as a whole is supposed to be other than buzzwords like “dark, Yeezus-descended, different”, or why the album is called Utopia even though it's darker, which is weird considering the rollout was accompanied by a movie and a (now canceled) show at the Egyptian pyramids, implying a more targeted overarching theme. The features are by and large pretty good and add to the songs; I’ll talk about them more specifically when talking about specific songs. There were the usual features like Drake, 21 Savage, Young Thug, Future, The Weeknd, and Swae Lee who all did about what they usually do in their collabs. This was accompanied by new (official) collaborators like Playboi Carti, Beyonce, Teezo Touchdown, Rob49, Sampha, Westside Gunn, and Bad Bunny, as well as some once-in-a-while gifts like Sza, James Blake, Kid Cudi, and Yung Lean. While they were all serviceable, not too many necessarily outshined Travis Scott on first listen like on Astroworld. Off the top of my head, the real standouts that first come to mind (and not even necessarily outshining) are Sza, Sampha, and Westside Gunn. Only a couple felt out of place or unnecessary on their specific tracks, namely Rob49, 21 on “Til Further Notice”, and maybe The Weeknd on “K-Pop”. Without an obvious overarching theme, it's hard to judge sequencing, but there was some thought put into this, far from a Wunna “lets insert songs wherever and see if anyone notices” approach. The first 3.5 songs all feel like album intro/opener music, setting up the vibe but not getting too deep into anything and keeping things slow before “the drop” in the second half of “My Eyes”. We then get vocal-sample focused instrumentals raising the theme and energy before a couple mainstream/concert focused tracks, some “moodsetters” I guess, then album cuts before a couple outro/closer style songs. I’ll focus more on the specifics in the song-by-song breakdowns. There isn’t a huge elevation of the songs when listened to in album format, but there’s definitely some net positive there.
Flows/Cadence/Delivery	There is definitely a more “coarse” delivery in a lot of the songs, especially towards the beginning, as Travis leans into his “rapping voice” a little more, contrasted with his last 2 albums where there was a much heavier use of autotune. Like I said above, while the finished product can leave you wanting more, the part I enjoy most about Travis Scott rapping is the cadence and the way his voice sounds, so that part was pretty great. He had some other moments where he lent his voice to rarer deliveries, like on the first half of “My Eyes”, where he is using a more singing cadence, using a sort of “experimental psychedelic RnB” flow like Sampha (a lot of people have said they hear Frank Ocean’s style, but other than the vocal inflection with the autotune I don’t hear that in the flow).
Lyrics	Given their lesser importance in judging a Travis Scott album, I didn’t try to go through every song and analyze metaphors and shit. It did feel like overall though, the pretty basic ways of talking about money, cars, guns, and hos stood out in their repetitive mediocrity more than usual, probably because Travis’ artistic goals went a little further beyond his raw rapping ability. Again, artists like Kanye have pushed that envelope before, but his personality and creativity more than made up for it, and his lyricism is already much better than Travis Scott’s. He definitely has some moments though, and they make the songs that much more enjoyable. The second half of “My Eyes” (you might be able to tell how I feel about the song by how many times I’ve mentioned it already) touches on the Astroworld festival tragedy, his relationship with baby mama Kylie Jenner, and more, while on other songs that I classified as “moodsetters” there are pockets in each song where you can clearly see exactly what he was going for, but he’s trying to toe the line between that and commerciality. Again, more specific insight in the song breakdowns.
Replayability	Not a whole lot to write in a general sense outside of the song breakdowns, but I think as the weeks went by with the album I found myself coming back to more and more, so it had better replayability than I thought it would. However, it does have to fit a very specific "vibe" for the most part; I'm not playing most of this when walking on a nice day or hyping myself up for a game or the gym.

Thoughts On Each Song:

Hyaena

I have my issues with the track but we haven’t seen him this energetically RAPPING since Rodeo or even before that, which is pretty refreshing; a pretty solid standard opening track; Travis catches some pretty good flow pockets; looking back, a good vibe indicator for the whole album

Thank God

An interesting and fitting beat that picks up in the end; basically another intro song, although I like this one better; the beat buildup and transition is nice, and once the second part of the beat comes in the track is completely captivating even though the first half is pretty good itself; the snyths switching up paired with more energetic drums and loud bells fits a little better with Travis Scott’s specific delivery of rapping than the completely barebones ones, for reasons discussed already; definitely took some time for the track as a whole to grow on me, and its not out of this world, but definitely one of my favorites from the first half; the lyrics in the first 2 verses center around being grateful for being alive and lifestyle he lives, before the beat gets more menacing for the third verse, where he talking about the 2018 Grammy travesty and using the motivation to create “bigger and better” music, exactly the type of talk you would expect for someone who became one of the biggest music stars in the world; outside of the Stormi line, the lyrics are pretty solid and the specific wordplay isn’t completely generic for Travis

Modern Jam ft Tees Touchdown

Basically the third intro style track, and I’m not sure exactly how needed it was in that context even though its solid in and of itself; still different from the others though, so I’m not too hardline on that; the beat is simple but works and he has a catchy flow over it; probably made for concert or club/Boiler Room-like settings as the bridge is Travis kind of acting acting like a DJ Drama figure; the Teezo Touchdown feature is a little different and more spacy, and while I wasn’t in love with it at first it's definitely the most interesting part of the song; not a bad song, and one you can bop your head to

My Eyes ft Sampha

Here we go. Part 1 is a laid back synth and piano dominated instrumental with a psychedelic spacey poor man’s RnB-ish vibe in the best way possible, both in sound, flow, and lyrcis; some of Travis’ best use of higher pitched autotune, where it feels like serenading; it took a couple of listens to get used to, but it is super nice to listen to personally and perfect for late night vibes; Sampha’s feature is WAY too short for how good his voice sounds and how perfect he is for the beat, but it is a nice transition between parts; the beat switch is natural and you can hear the progression, which is the best type of switch; the drop is just fantastic, even though its just sped up with some subdued drums; the flow that Travis slides over it with is mad catchy and made me keep stank face the rest of the song; this verse is definitely one of the best of his in recent memory, maybe of his career; by Travis standards the lyrics are pretty great, where he addresses his relationship with Kylie Jenner, the festival tragedy, and using wealth to cover grief, not in any particularly creative ways outside of references but the topics do mean something; definitely an S tier Travis song assuming it ages well

God's Country

I get why people don’t like this song, but I like it; one of the better Yeezus type cuts; the beat is almost completely made up of pitched-up humming that sounds like Mort from Madagascar and 808s; his rapping delivery pairs well with the beat; I can’t say for sure what he’s saying with the lyrics, but he definitely is trying to sound like he is being deeper; I gleaned some bars about using wealth to mask loneliness and as a replacement for real community; he feels the need to separate himself from that and go back to his roots (sort of like how he is trying to do musically on this early part of the album); outside of that, it's simply an album cut that function well as a banger; for me one of the better tracks on the record; the video is pretty nice too

Sirens

The cymbal based instrumental is abrasive and dope, again a bit of an older Kanye feel but more catered towards Travis Scott; the little high pitched intonation he does at the end of a lot of the lines is surprisingly not that annoying; the transition to the outro instrumentals and the synths are pretty great and paired well as a juxtaposition to the grounded and menacing drums; the lyrics aren’t anything to write about, though again I think he is trying to give some semblance of a facade that he is analyzing something deeper, or maybe I’m just missing some things; definitely could do well in live settings; the ending with Drake was cool the first time around cuz we knew he would be on the next song, and it was funny that time, but now every other time I’ve heard it all I can think about is the fact that he’s pushing 40… I don’t know, maybe I’m hating

Meltdown ft Drake

Full disclosure, as of now I am not as big on this song as most other people seem to be, even though I like Drake a good amount and especially the collaborations he does with Travis; I wouldn’t be that surprised if I liked it slightly more as time goes on though; I wasn’t in love with the whisper-rap delivery on Drake’s verse until literally the moment I am writing this, so I can see it growing on me as well, but all I could think about the first time around was how much harder he could potentially go with his usual voice… although we always criticize him for giving the same delivery, so then again maybe not; continuing the pattern Drake sends shots on his songs with Travis, with potential jabs at Gunna, Childish Gambino, Pharell, and of course Pusha T; while in a real sense I’d rather he drop some of this and not try to pick beefs at this point knowing how he tends to latch onto them, I can’t say it wasn’t entertaining, especially since compared to Travis his lyrical ability is higher; the light horns in the background and heavy deep piano transition into Travis’ first verse is nice; Travis’ wordplay in some of the lines in his first verse is actually solid, and his flow feels a bit more energetic and bouncy; Timothee Chalamet getting dissed on tracks? Is this what we doing now? I don’t know why, but it made me kind of happy… I’m definitely hating; the beat then switches up to a much more high tempo drum focused production style; I know its the most basic and “mainstream” part of the song, but I got the most enjoyment out of this part this first time around, and Travis again finds a solid pocket and most importantly switches his delivery up a bit from his earlier verse; the DaBaby line is fucking hillarious; basically in both verses Travis Scott is just talking his on top of the world shit; I think they did an okay job of toeing the line between trying to have something reminiscent of “Sicko Mode” without completely just making that again, which might have been crossed if Drake took on the last beat (although as of right now “Sicko Mode” might still be better for me despite it being played out); the chemistry between the 2 is palpable and, now that I pay attention to it, enjoyable, and they were definitely ideating and making the song together; I didn’t really fuck with it on first listen, but I can definitely run with this one for a while, although it probably won’t be top 3 on the album for me like it is for a lot of people; is you fuckin crazy, is you fuckin crazy, yeaaaaaaaa

Fe!n ft Playboi Carti

FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN; alright here’s another highly anticipated and fairly well touted one; definitely a festival/club banger; apparently the baby voice on the chorus in Travis and not Playboi Carti???; Travis fully jumps into a more mainstream version of the Opium vibe; Carti tries out a new deeper voice on the track… It's cool, nothing crazy but not the absolute garbage it might’ve felt like the first few seconds you heard it; Travis doesn’t do anything too crazy, although the chorus is really catchy; I honestly didn’t like it that much, but it's kinda stuck in my head a bit… ima give it a chance and see wassup, who knows maybe I’ll turn; I see why Travis included it for sure and I’m not knocking him for it, but it's things like this that make me more confused on the theme of the album, if there is supposed to be one; the most similar track on Astroworld, for example, was probably “No Bystanders” and if memory serves me right that didn’t seem to out of place in the sequencing and the already more happier and mainstream vibe of the album; this either ages really poorly or really well for me, no in between, and I’m kinda scared for which one it is

Delresto (Echoes) ft Beyonce and Bon Iver

Beyonce x Travis Scott x Bon Iver is wild; a sort of garage and house infused dark beat, in tune with Beyonce’s recent music where she lends a deeper rapping voice along with her vocals; I actually really like Beyonce on this as I listen to it while writing this; a nice vibey and bouncy album cut that doesn’t feel too out of place; it's not in any playlist for me or anything, but I could see this being a sleeper hit with a lot of Travis fans in the future; Travis initially has a sort of modern 808s and Heartbreakdelivery, and it works fine; I don’t see why people are hating on this track, and it is definitely different from most other tracks on the album, but at the same time it doesn’t have a major impact as of right now at least

I Know?

During my sort of underwhelming first listen, this is the track I could most easily latch on to, and I believe it will grow on people; from what I could gleam the production and curation of the track shows the actual progression in sounds and vibes between 2018 and now, taking the Astroworld sound but making it darker, with hints of Rodeo in the lyrics, and of course the night drive vibe has strokes of BITTSM as well; has good replayability as well; piano buildup is dope; the wavy drums and drops make you bop your head; the chorus is smooth enough; the lyrics are self aware of some of the decadence in his lifestyle and maybe lend a window into his on and off relationship with his baby mama as well; even if it makes me look basic to people who may not see it the way I see it, I love this track a lot despite its simplicity, and I can’t really say too much more about it except give it another listen if you don’t feel that way

Topia Twins ft Rob49, 21 Savage

Basic? Fuck yea; who is Rob49 and why did I think that was NBA Youngboy at first? I don’t know; does it have any business being on this album sonically? Probably not; I think the point of the track was to further emphasize the decadence a superstar Travis Scott is falling into in a commercial and fun way, which I totally respect if thats the case because thats probably the approach I would have taken if making an album, but that’s all assuming I’m interpreting the theme right (and for the sake of this song especially and the couple preceding it, I really hope I am); this song is in my playlists, but I recognize any criticism I’ve heard of it and it doesn’t necessarily offer anything new or exciting; Rob49’s verse has been shit on a lot, and while its totally out of place on the album I think it fits fine on the track, and its pretty short anyways; everyone saying Travis should have just got Youngboy is a bit disingenuous and disrespectful to Rob49… but lowkey there’s some truth to that question; “the way I shoot my shot at all these hoes, I fuck my shoulder up” is near the floor for a triple entendre but I fucked with it for sure, before it was ruined by another bar about toes; the transition between Rob49 and Travis is clean; twin bitches hoppin off a jetskiiiiii ok that’s kinda catchy; as soon as I heard the flow Travis was using I knew 21 Savage was gonna show up; his verse is a standard 21 Savage feature verse; I still get enjoyment out of them, but the insane similarity in the majority of his features in both delivery and content is getting kind of crazy, and if he plans to drop an album he should try to engineer a little break from his sound before that because I know it has already gotten old for a lot of people, and its getting there for others; how many times do I have to hear about twin glocks (although I guess its weird if he doesn’t do it on a song with twin in the name); “Amazon Prime, give me two days I bet he drop” is a nice 21 bar; why the hell did I write so much about this track, fully meant to do the exact opposite

Circus Maximus ft Swae Lee and The Weeknd

A direct Yeezus track interpolation; I kind of disliked how similar it all sounded at first, but I think Travis takes some good steps to at least try to make it his own in some way, and it's an enjoyable song; Swae Lee’s intro is fine; I like the “Black Skinhead” drums in general man; the pockets he catches are dope; I think The Weeknd's chorus is a really nice touch not just for differentiation but as a feature itself, and helps indicate that Travis’ character in Utopia has begun to see the effects of his mega-fame and how much it covers up; The Weeknd is perfect to do that, because so much of his solo music has centered around that, especially recently; you know what, even though it's so similar to “Black Skinhead” a whole 10 years later, I still get enjoyment out of this and it fits into the sequencing of the album, so I’m with it for now

Parasail ft Yung Lean and Dave Chapelle

This is basically an interlude; I’m a big Dave Chapelle guy, so I’m happy with his inclusion; Yung Lean’s verse of 2 bars is cool; psychedelic spacey track that’s trying to be utilized as a transition out of the “decadence” middle section vaguely dealing with things like forgiveness

Skitzo ft Young Thug

Why the hell is this 6 minutes long man; I think what Travis tries to do here, which is use the track as a window into his erratic state of mind following big events in his life that were major roadblocks for someone who initially had unstoppable momentum, including the festival tragedy and Young Thug’s incarceration, was good and honestly a needed topic to focus on for people to take this album seriously given the magnitude of the festival tragedy and its fallout; he ends up doing almost none of that though; I’m just not big on the delivery of the actual track itself though, almost like he was confused on how to approach this, thinking he will switch it up after every verse in an attempt to keep it fresh, but each individual part was safe; his first verse has a catchy bouncy flow but its not anything new, still fine; this beat is good for Young Thug but he doesn’t do anything special either, especially compared to their past collaborations; part 2 switches it up a bit but again, nothing too different even from the first part; the third part is the most accessible, and its basically what a B tier Travis feature verse would be, in that its good and doesn’t ruin the song (for some artists elevates it) but you know he’s done better; the beat in the fourth part is cool, but its too short to really see too much of what Travis can do with it, although “how I’m always in their ear, I’m enticin” after a bar about biting is pretty nice; feels like he wanted to put these verses on the album, but they weren’t interesting enough by themselves, but that doesn’t usually mean they’ll be interesting together; again, why am I writing so much

Lost Forever ft Westside Gunn

Have you ever beeeen lost; the sample to set the vibe before the menacing instrumental is cool; for Travis’ verse especially, everything is pretty barebones; his delivery is cool and fitting; BOO BOO BOO BOO shoutout Westside Gunn; the instrumental adds some hollow drums which is a great touch that elevates the track; fuck I love the menacing, haunting, empty vibe of the beat; Travis does pretty good on this, but Westside Gunn absolutely steals the track despite there not being too many “oh shit” bars or anything; definitely a favorite

Looove ft Kid Cudi

I’ve gone back and forth on this one honestly; Travis addresses fame again, but with a more optimistic positive outlook; both beats have a sort of late night thriller vibe to them; his voice delivery is pretty nice to listen to starting off, but starts getting stale by the middle of his second verse; the bass guitar during the transitions in the background definitely elevates the track; Kid Cudi’s cadence fits within the track well, even though it's mad familiar to Travis Scott’s, and if this was a Cudi solo song he probably would’ve sounded even better; its a solid album cut

K-Pop ft Bad Bunny and The Weeknd

Like yea it's in my playlist for now, but what was the point man? Just slap Bad Bunny, one of the biggest international stars in the world, on a track, don’t really do anything creative with it, and watch it do numbers seemed to be the mindset; I also can’t knock an artist for putting commercially successful singles on an album but it sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the album; its really not as bad as people trashed it when it came out, but its not amazing even tho it has the vaguely catchy summer vibe; I’m a fan of beats like this even though they’re terribly basic, so that was cool; Travis had a nice cadence on this but was smart to keep it short; I don’t know why people were shitting on Bad Bunny for this because this track was obviously made for him to slap a mid effort verse on it (its fine, enjoyable enough and vibey); I actually like The Weeknd’s delivery for most of the verse, and its obvious none of them were meant to put in super high effort or concept verses, and I just like his voice, but its not great; thats partly because the lyrics are absolute cheeks, and as a big fan I really hope The Weeknd lays off painfully uncreative horny throwaway verses especially post his HBO show, because it is hurting his reputation; I think if this wasn’t the lead single it might have gotten better reception because its definitely not a bad track… but if it wasn’t the single I don’t see a reason for it to be on here either

Telekinesis ft Sza and Future

Now we can get back to the actual flow of the album; this is another song that was initially a Kanye West song for Donda, but I like what Travis, Future, and especially Sza did with it here; Future’s intro verse sets the tone really nice leading into Travis’ chorus; the instrumental is dreamy and mental, hence the title; the bounce that gets added in for Travis’ first verse is a great touch, and I’m not even sure what the other parts of the instrumental are but they come together composed great; Future gives a longer and good verse, just like his laid back delivery and slower cadence; I don’t really see the need for Travis to come in with the chorus again before Sza, it sort of fucks with the pacing; Sza broooooooo… her voice is just magic man; I have no clue why her vocals are mixed SO MUCH LOUDER than everything else in the song, but it doesn’t ruin it for me; she fits in perfect with the dreamy vibe Travis is going for; there’s a case to be made that so many Sza guest verses are about “you fucked this girl, I fucked this guy, why the hell you did that, can we not gonna do that please”, but she does not drop frequently enough where this can be a huge criticism like with 21 Savage; just a great track and closer; its a little hard to tell how it fits into the half baked theme of the album for me, but this is sort of triumphant Travis without the loud debauchery, talking about his riches but without the fakeness surrounding him earlier, focusing more on himself and his family

Til Further Notice ft James Blake and 21 Savage

James Blake flows over this standard Metro instrumental; 21 actually catches some nice pockets in his verse I didn’t notice before, but the only justification I can think of for him being here on the outro track is that this was made during Metro Boomin’s Heroes and Villains studio sessions, so it's a little jarring; it's a simple little outro track, although it doesn’t drive home any points or themes or anything, you just can’t end on that Sza verse

Preliminary Soft Ranking That I Will Spend Maybe 3 Minutes On So Don’t Take It Too Seriously But Also It Means Something:

1. My Eyes ft Sampha

2. I Know?

3. Telekinesis ft Future, Sza

4. Lost Forever ft Westside Gunn

5. Thank God ft KayCee

6. Sirens

7. Circus Maximus ft Swae Lee, The Weeknd

8. God’s Country

9. Meltdown ft Drake (barely over Hyaena, not even sure why)

10. Hyaena

11. Topia Twins ft Rob49, 21 Savage (barely over Fe!n, could change)

12. Looove ft Kid Cudi

13. Fe!n ft Playboi Carti (not even sure where to put this to be honest)

14. Delresto (Echoes) ft Beyonce

15. K-Pop ft Bad Bunny, The Weeknd

16. Modern Jam ft Teezo Touchdown

17. Parasail ft Dave Chapelle, Yung Lean (basically an interlude so maybe shouldn’t be included in ranking)

18. Til Further Notice ft James Blake, 21 Savage

19. Skitzo ft Young Thug

Overall, I do think this will be an AOTY contender for me, with the caveat that it had the potential to be much bigger. Regardless, I think it does quench any thirst people had for more Travis Scott solo music for a while, which ultimately is the goal of his records.