OCTANE

Imagine you’re at a restaurant and you receive 4 plates of a decent-tasting alfredo. There’s a difference in the displayed protein (e.g. shrimp, chicken, steak), but overall it’s the same alfredo. It’ll taste good, sure…but at some point you’re going to get tired of just eating slightly different alfredo. That’s what Don Toliver’s music is starting to feel like. It’s not bad at all - in fact, the quality increases with each album. But his sound has yet to evolve at all. Octane is an album that’ll have you bopping your head, but it’ll fall out of your rotation in a few days. The songs are good, but repetitive. And as you know, good songs don’t make a good album. This album virtually has no meaning - which sucks because its rollout had some potential. It takes the same blueprint from the past albums and tries to crank it up to 11; but just falls in a sea of obscurity. Gemstone’s still a fire song though.