E

tldr: ecco stands against his contemporaries and sets a new height for cloud rap with a dense and delicate 30 minute project

no this isnt ironic. ecco2k has a top 10 project in 2019 and probably the best cloud rap/dg record ever. im not a huge fan of cloud rap outside lean and (now) ecco since i could never get into the lazy flow and boring writing that a lot of these projects have, but ecco does it right. sure the lyricism isnt anything crazy and the flow isn't mind blowing, but ecco uses these floaty beats to create a fragile and cloudy atmosphere that he maintains for pretty much the whole project. his delicate delivery is a perfect fit for these beats and it feels like an extension of them instead of terrible bars over an instrumental that deserves so much more. when that first synth/pad hits on aaa powerline you're lifted into the air and you just sit there 3 feet off the ground for (((most))) of the project. every song follows a similar formula of faint electronics, soft 808s, and ecco's falsetto(???) rapping, but every song is unique enough where it can stand on it's own. calcium features probably the best vocal performance of his career (novocanecrystalskissmynuts), peroxide has a ton of reverbed and delayed adlibs that throws the listener into this foggy world, and so on. making a super cohesive project shouldn't be a special feat for most genres, but cloud rap had yet to make a project that feels as complete as this. it doesn't stray far away from the style of most of his contemporaries, but instead it amplifies the best aspects of the genre that usually get skimmed over in most other projects. the only 2 songs on e that feel outside of his usual style are the last 2 songs and also the best and worst songs on the album: time and blue eyes. time is more trap influenced but oh my god does this shit BANG. gud and sherm are some of my favorite producers right now and ecco takes this gud beat to another level. the swirling keys at the beginning lead into this fat 808 with trap drums and ecco switches to this aggressive delivery that pays off in the best possible way. this is one of my fav rap songs of the year and by far the best on the album. his muffled vocals and that synth that comes in on the 2nd half of the song is something else. blue eyes, in comparison, is just bad. maybe because it comes after such an incredible song but i just cant feel it at all. i can see what ecco is trying to do here, but the screams behind his voice and the synth that sounds like its 2 octaves too high is just so dissonant and doesn't work at all for me. if he ended the album with a song in the same vain of the rest of the project this might be an 8, but personally blue eyes just drags everything down so much. besides that though, the project maintains a fantastic level of consistency and tone and i hope ecco can capitalize on this dreamy sound that he's created. this isn't another short throwaway lp from drain gang, this is a project that is unique and complete in the mess that is cloud rap right now. this is the current peak of cloud rap and i hope the rest of the genre can take some notes from it.

favs: aaa powerline, peroxide, calcium, time
least favs: blue eyes