Even though the emphasis of the record is on its expansive production, the lyrics are more telling than they’ve ever been. While each song has a solid musical backbone, it’s Brown’s narratives that make the most profound impact, and move the album forward.
While Old often seems like a hip-hop kaleidoscope exploding across the speakers, it's also crafted and paced, split down the middle like a great LP with a sure start and a freeing finish.
What makes Old great is its refusal to be one coherent statement. The album is as messy and wild as Danny Brown’s life.
Old positively vibrates with Brown’s nasally helter-skelter energy.
Old is the perfect means for escapism; a lush view into a world that is incompatible with the lifestyles of many of the fans and critics, who will undoubtedly enjoy chanting along as Brown rhymes about his drug filled escapades.
Old is Brown’s best work. Complex beyond its two-sided structure, it is filled with narratives that collide, sentiments that conflict and resolutions that come to nothing.
Old is all about developing the character of one very conflicted dude, and to me that’s its crowning achievement.
More than ever, Old allows even passive listeners to care about what Brown is saying, to form a bond with him and to trust there is more of interest to him than women and drugs.
In his berserk originality, writerly flair, emotional impact, and old-fashioned craft, Danny Brown belongs in any conversation about the best rappers working, and he's at the top of his game here.
Old, from its quirky beat selection to its more classic hip-hop moments leaves the listener more than happy but steeped with a sense of jealousy.
Old doesn’t sound like anything approaching a conventional hip-hop record—and in a year when the majority of rap’s big hitters failed to deliver, it couldn’t feel more indispensable.
Comfortable with his place in the industry, Old offers a complete look of the formerly one-dimensional Brown.
The popular perception of Danny Brown as a particularly lewd-yet-talented harlequin, one who banters about absurd rap tropes indicative of a healthy respect for the hoary even as he transcends it, fails to take into account his most important asset, the one Old makes abundantly clear; his acute understanding of the environment such bromides are born from.
Old is a post-fame album done right.
Simultaneously targeting fanatics who believe Danny Brown can do no wrong and traditionalist skeptics who show up for highlights like the Oh No produced “Red 2 Go,” Old requires the patience and empathy one would lend to a friend suffering from a bipolar disorder.
With Old, Brown has bettered XXX by putting in the same kind of hard graft that has given him the edge on his endless run of tours. It’s an album that feels measured and well timed and yet avoids sounding over-polished or awkwardly stage-managed.
Old is so successful because it reflects Danny Brown the person, Danny Brown the persona, and Danny Brown the artist.
Old is XXX without that fun first half. It isn't traditionally enjoyable, and it isn't supposed to be. But for Danny Brown, the pill-popping, pussy-eating squawk-box, it's the most daring record he could've made.
Brown's nu-skool genius is out in force here on his third album. The record's producers take their cues from his truly singular flow – a terse, hectoring blend of squawking cocaine mania and ghoulish, punk gruffness – and respond in kind with an album of unprecedented production styles.
Old consistently offers up words and music that, while certainly extremely enjoyable on the most basic aural terms, also holds up to deeper dissection and analysis.
It's an album that mirrors the Detroit native's constant cycle of drug-fueled partying and remorse that was introduced on 2011's XXX. The major difference this time around being heavier instrumentals and Danny's split personalities feeling even more at odds.
The protean image we get of Brown, instead, is at its best when the complications of identity clash with complications of sound and fit into fascinatingly confining structures.
“Old” is not a bad album per se, but it def aint his best. The high points on here I think are pretty great, 3 tracks were really great, “Dip” is honestly in my top 5 Danny songs ever, and generally I think the production here has aged a lot better that some moments on “XXX” for me. However, this album has some pretty big consistency issues on a lot of this album, especially near the back end of this thing with the kinda surface level and mid as hell ... read more
Rap has always made room for eccentrics - from Ol' Dirty Bastard to Busta Rhymes. Now, we have Danny Brown, the legendary crazy rapper with one of the most amazing discography in the game.
Danny Brown is a funny guy. In 2013, he was 32 years old -barely four years younger than Kanye West- he was regularly mentioned among the new generation of rappers 2.0, among "kids" who often barely exceeded 20 years of age.
Daniel Dewan Sewell was born in Detroit in 1981. His mother was 17 years ... read more
This is the most polarizing Danny Brown project amongst fans. While Side A follows how a normal Danny album would go, Side B is littered with dubstep songs? If there’s one thing that separates this from something like ‘Watch The Throne’, it’s that Danny Brown can make these songs actually enjoyable, even if they’re poorly aged.
I’ve never seen a record get ruined so fast. The first half of old is a pretty solid, yet not mindblowing Danny brown album. The second half is a dubstep inspired rap album that is so dated that it is almost fossilized. It gets pretty boring and almost hard to listen to, but more so it’s just disappointing that it ruins most of my enjoyment in the project.
1 | Side A (Old) 2:23 | 83 |
2 | The Return 3:10 feat. Freddie Gibbs | 88 |
3 | 25 Bucks 3:30 feat. Purity Ring | 82 |
4 | Wonderbread 1:58 | 75 |
5 | Gremlins 2:05 | 76 |
6 | Dope Fiend Rental 2:55 feat. ScHoolboy Q | 84 |
7 | Torture 3:46 | 82 |
8 | Lonely 2:19 | 79 |
9 | Clean Up 3:01 | 83 |
10 | Red 2 Go 3:18 | 81 |
11 | Side B (Dope Song) 2:36 | 72 |
12 | Dubstep 2:16 feat. Scrufizzer | 71 |
13 | Dip 3:31 | 77 |
14 | Smokin & Drinkin 2:53 | 77 |
15 | Break It (Go) 3:12 | 64 |
16 | Handstand 2:55 | 56 |
17 | Way Up Here 2:36 feat. Ab-Soul | 58 |
18 | Kush Coma 4:41 feat. A$AP Rocky, ZelooperZ | 78 |
19 | Float On 3:31 feat. Charli XCX | 83 |
#2 | / | Cokemachineglow |
#2 | / | Gorilla vs. Bear |
#5 | / | Complex |
#5 | / | Pitchfork |
#7 | / | eMusic |
#7 | / | Stereogum |
#10 | / | The 405 |
#12 | / | Spin |
#13 | / | Pigeons & Planes |
#14 | / | Consequence of Sound |