by Mr.DGAF » Feb 28th, '14, 00:19
Daydreams & Nightmares
Prologue (It's Not Gonna Last)
Been bumping this one a lot since you released it early. I think this song is facking dope. “The present is the future as it drives right by us”… damn son. DEEP. I really like the flow of the first verse. You absolutely nailed it. Love the hanging on “I miss you, is it…”, you did a good job of keeping the flow organic while packing that multi in there. In general I think your writing and flow have grown so much since GF. Love the part in the second verse where the deep voice backs yours, you spazz on the flow and I thought the addition of that layer really added to the frantic pace. That cameo at the end almost stole the show though mane. Good shit to that guy.
Also like the semi-introduction to the story. I think you and this story have a lot in common emotionally and that made it really easy for you to start telling a pretty vivid story.
Daydreams (Time To Think)
The demo for this is one of the first I heard for the album. Like dat beat, shout to Demaz. Sounds a decent bit like a GF beat with the piano, but a bit more intricate. I like it. Love the flow on the “purchasing tickets” part mane. Nailed the flow on the first verse, love the “Heaven knows even a stone can be a gem though” line, really nice bar leading into it. One of the better bars I’ve ever heard from you. The hook sounds really morbid, but it fits the entire album’s theme. Thought it really added to the overall atmosphere. The transition into the story here was perfect. Love the guitar outro, sets the tone perfect. I thought you did a really good job of vocally speaking this part; I felt a lot of the intonation and feeling inside it dawg. Nice hidden multis in there too haha.
Let's Watch the Sunrise
Noice hook and beat. Can’t complain there. I think you did a pretty good job on the beat selection here, I remember the complaint that you used to go overly poppy on the beat route. I thought this was a definitive point of progression against that. Nice little interlude to really kick the story in, the female voice is a bit disturbing at points hahaha. Very nice conversational style to begin the verse. Then shit flips. I love the flip in the verse. You sound so nice, “Who’s texting you at this hour?” then it’s like “I’ll FUCKING CRUSH THEM!” Dope. Love the scheme to start the next voice. Flows perfectly mane. Again, very nice writing on this song. You tell a pretty coherent story with a lot of depth in the emotional aspect of it and it translates well in the song. I felt like reading the novel wasn’t much necessary for the early parts because you really got the point across well on these intro songs.
Forever (Stare at Us)
This Sean Divine guy’s got some dope beats. The consistency on the hook really helps too mane, I dig that. Story accelerates a bit here, but it follows nicely. I can’t keep saying how impressive it is that you really nail the story telling in these verses. Delivery sounds so much more confident too. Love the delivery on “weaken those strengths….fears don’t go and break me” sounded really fucking dope. Very convincing voice acting there dude. The break into the next instrumental is smooth as shit yo. The mixing on the effects and shit like that on this album is pretty damn good man.
A Darker Yesterday (A New Ecliptic)
Easily my favorite off the album. Excuse me while I gush hue. I’ve bumped this one quite a lot so the feed will be pretty thorough. First of all, the beat is BONKERS. I dig literally everything about this song. The hook is perfect, fits the theme and the style of the song so well. Delivery on the first verse is awesome, you literally sound like a fucking killer on the first part of that verse. Flow is sick, love the “hip-hop/sling-shot” scheme and flow. Love the effortless in the second verse. You hit that scheme with the “coffin/coughin” transition and just roll with it, but it works so well. Some of the most seamless and impressive writing I’ve heard from ya m8. Really like the overall vibe of this one too, it’s kind of the start of the internal conflict and thought-flowing portion of the album where the story doesn’t accelerate as much as the concentration falls in the head of the narrator of the album. I really like this song dawg.
Telephone Poles (Escape)
This beat goes hard yo. Like the harsher tone that kind of started in the last song and really amps up here. Love the currency bars/the delivery on those, really drives home the anger inside the narrator. Hook is dope too, I dig the wordplay with the dropped call part. I also like that little shout in the middle of the second verse haha. Also like how it kind of seems like he’s falling back into feeling sorry again towards the end of the second verse. The anger and pain are kind of defaulting into self-pity and whatnot. Then it comes back around midway through the third verse. That scheme that lasts nearly the entire verse is fucking dope haha. And then there’s that guy at the end of the song again, nearly renegading the entire project. Such sincerity in his voicemail. I dig it.
No Home
Idk why I wasn’t feeling this song initially man. It’s actually one of my more played tracks on the album. I quite like the hook, the girl singer does a solid job man. The beat is really dope too, I really like that man. Another dope ass beat. Love the closing lines “can’t even dream right”. Good shit there. The flow on the first lines is a bit weird, the “big nose, fat rolls, basically” part sounds kinda forced, but the rest of the verse is dope. I notice that mirage scheme is pretty similar to the one in Mirage from GF. I remember you saying you wrote this one first or near first so I can kinda see the flow in that aspect. Love the scheme in the third verse “weak and I’m bleeding it’s hard”. This song really clicked for me dude.
The Moon's Imaginary Friend
This beat is haunting dude. I’ll have nightmares (and daydreams) about it forever. “What’s a birthday to the two eyeballs shut in a coffin” is fucking sick dude. Also really liked the flow on the bars that come next and the phrasing about if we found water on mars. Nice little touch there to put a human’s feeling sad or pity in perspective to how large and impartial this universe is. Really like how you bounce the schemes off in verse three, they just flow so nicely it seems like the bar count doesn’t even matter. IDK how to explain it haha. Really really like those closing lines, kind of opens the story up and shuts the last section of this characters life off. That bridge is dope too, I really like the symbolism in the bridge’s ending and the title of the song. Nice little subtle foreshadowing with the ringing phone during that instrumental interlude. There’s that guy at the end who keeps fucking slaughtering everything he does. He’s too good man.
Tell Tale
I thought the upbeat nature of this song fit the growth of the character and his path towards living a normal life again. The opening bars are dooooope, love the “dug some up scheme”. Your voice sounds kinda weird on the part where you’re like “the fact that this is….” Oh well. Like the confidence of the verse, it really shines through, especially towards the ending and that little “uh”. Fate is just the hand on the puppet strings. Fucking whew dude, that’s an impressive as line. The third verse feels so epic haha, even the little bridge behind that sick ass beat just sounds so good haha. The end of this song always reminds me of the end of one of the Macklemore songs from The Heist. Not a bad thing haha.
Away From Here (One Way) ft. Mat Demaz
Whew the Demaz feature! Fucking love this beat dude. You sound sinister spitting these bars haha. It just flows so effortlessly man. Love the intro bars, “who just arrived at the station?” Also the part, “and do I pray for somebody to come up and….” flows so damn well. Like the hook too. The vibe of this reminds me of Asylum by SH. I really like this darker mind type thinking from the character, he sounds pretty fucking confident and nearly condescending, in a good way. I have to say, the beat loops a bit sloppily before the third verse. That’s my only complaint on this song.
Fall
Hooks pretty dope. Really like the beat though, a lot of these beats go hard. Not a huge fan of the beat drop for such an elongated time, but I love the actual words behind that first beat drop. Backing oout of situations with possibly good outcomes is something I unfortunately find myself doing. Love the bars in the second verse from “falling for us” onward, the end of the second verse is fucking sick. Really really like the flow on that part.
At the End (Nightmares)
This fucking beat is siiiiiiick. I remember you showing it to me a while back. You flow it perfectly too, it’s a bit of a tough beat to master but I feel like you nailed it. Love the hook too, this entire song has such an epic fucking feeling to it. Love the part from the middle of the first verse to the end before the “and the light…” My favorite is probably the “shirt on our back no dead weight”. The “I was in love just a daw ago” part summarizes this entire album so fucking well. The progression is really dope from a guy on the verge of losing it who finds a place to go and then finds a path to use to get to that place. It’s full circle man, and it fucking works.
Epilogue: Back To Life (To Be Continued...)
This beat/hook is perfect to close the album. I’m not a huge fan of the singer though haha. I like the switch up again from perspective, it really closes the album and the story really well. I love the beat in the hook for some reason. I dunno what those instruments are but they sound dope. Again, the social interaction part was really nice in terms of self-deprecation and honesty. This is another one of my faves off the album haha. Really fucking dope.
NOVEL
I actually thought this was really well written dude. Again, you did such a good job in the first part of this album with constantly moving the story forward that the novel didn’t have much room to create any new feelings. However it picks up when he goes to run his errands (which he finishes really fucking quickly in comparison to when he thought he’d be done). You did a great job of really scrutinizing and analyzing every thought in his head, and then he comes back and witnesses his girl cheating and loses it. The thoughts and writing become a bit less in depth, but I think this is for the better. It kind of personifies how he’s losing his shit in the moment. Then it picks back up after the pavilion and he’s on his journey to find a journey. He’s got no purpose. Then it all comes together at the train station, where I thought you could’ve delved into the ending a little more. The process of love seems to happy just a little too quickly, especially in comparison to how the beginning of the story really drew everything out. IDK, that was my only complaint. I thought everything else was well written and the ending itself, in it’s meaning and symbolism was very fitting.
Overall
This album is a strong entry. The scope and cohesiveness alone propel it beyond GF in my eyes, but you also do a good job of growing on each particular track. The flow, delivery, intonation, writing, etc. have all improved vastly. I also feel like you’re writing better songs in general too. This is a very dope album my man.
8.2/10
You'd be surprised...
How many truths you can hide in flows
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