Let's Start Here.

This album just oozes passion, and as an introduction to Lil Yachty, I am definitely interested in seeing the rest of his work outside of this new sound. While Psych Rock may not be his usual lane, this album shows that he not only has a passion for the genre, but also cares enough to work with others to make an album actually representative of the genre as well, something that many people who try to transition genres so intensely often fail at. And what I especially love about this, despite not being familiar with Lil Yachty's work prior, is I can still feel his roots in cloud rap show themselves, it doesn't feel like he's just abandoned them for this project.

This record explores a decent variety of psych rock sounds, from more grandiose Pink Floyd-esque sounds on the opener the BLACK seminole., to more Tme Impala inspired vibes on tracks like the ride- and drive ME crazy, to straight up horror themed orchestral pieces on the closer REACH THE SUNSHINE. The album also explores the theme of trying to reach happiness and "sunshine", a place away from the darkest parts of your mind, and also a relationship which at times is somewhat unclear whether it is referring to his relationship with another person or his relationship with drugs. It's also interesting hearing across this record songs commonly associated with cloud rap, such as the song pRETTy, into a different genre (and while it's not one of my favourite songs on the record, there is this part of me that wonders how many people who accuse rap of being all self-aggrandising would listen to this track not knowing who Lil Yachty is and mess with it).

Starting out we have the absolute monster of an opener track, the BLACK seminole. I'm glad I listened to this album a second time to make sure it wasn't just my shock at Lil Yachty's transition into this style that was making me love this track but it just oozes style without losing much in terms of substance. Strong disagree with Fantano about Yachty's vocals on this track, I genuinely think that they add to the atmosphere of the song really well in how psychadelic it is. It also goes through a few phases, none of which feel stale or underbaked, which is absolutely impressive for this switch-up. After a short slower opening, a phrenetic psych rock instrumental paints the first half of this track absolutely beautifully, ending with a guitar solo creeping in beneath Yachty's vocals around the 2:30 mark. Afterwards, the track spends its middle third exploring and expanding upon that opening slower psych passage before a more sci-fi sounding instrumental switches up the vibe again at 4:40 for a short section before the guitars and drums crash down, giving way to Diana Gordon's vocals for about a minute, mellowing out and then swelling back up into one final climax for the final stretch of the track. Absolute behemoth and an absolute statement to open up the record and thankfully it isn't the case that this ends up outshining everything else on the project.

the ride- follows on cleverly by switching up the vibe to a more Tame Impala tinged brand of psychadelic rock, rather than trying to live in the shadow of the track before it. It manages to create a more abrasive angle as it goes into a song about using materialism to fill a void, introducing the overarching narrative of the whole record. A great feature from Tezzo Touchdown manages to use a somewhat repetitious flow (not in a negative way) to hammer even further down into this psychadelic vibe of the track. The track then ends with an electronic crash as it transitions into the next song, also potentially foreshadowing what's to come later in the album.

Running out of time is a track that taps into some neo-soul and funk vibes, using effects over the horns that make them sound like they're coming from what you'd typically hear in an old recording, a very thick filter over Yachty's wavy voice, and contrasting that with very groovy bass and drums and a duet from Justine Skye that creates a rather interesting, sweet ballad about running out of time to be with someone (or potentially running out of time yourself due to a reliance on drugs).

pRETTy is probably one of weaker tracks of the record, being a rather straightforward track in terms of instrumental and theming, being very much that kind of ego trip/hypeman song you would find on a lot of cloud rap. But I think that the psych rock style almost changes the tone of this song, be it intentionally or unintentionally, that it feels less like it's intended to make the singer look cool and almost intended to make the singer feel better about himself, like he's trying to convince himself that what he's singing is true. Also I'll be totally honest I thought the second half of Foushee's feature was Arlo Parks the first time I heard it.

:(failure(: is an interesting track because narratively it's pretty interesting hearing how the effects of feeling like he's failing over and over has brought Yachty to the point he is on this album, but there is definitely something missing here. Not to dig at the spoken word elements of this track or anything, it just feels like it needs something else. I love the way everything slowly builds at the end into these screams to end the track off.

THE zone~ definitely picks things back into gear, creating an interesting little track that doubles down on the feelings of loneliness that's kind of shown up in a few places already, with trap vocals that rival the best of Travis Scott. The instrumental here is great but I think the most interesting part of this track is the return of Justine Skye, who was previously dueting with Yachty on running out of time, now being almost like the words that Yachty wants to hear to make himself not feel like this anymore.

WE SAW THE SUN is a great track about healing through a mental struggle, and how people perceive healing as an all or nothing thing. Feeling like you see a way out and you felt better for a bit but are suffering again is a lot harder for some people to understand than if you just tell them that you always feel terrible. The instrumentals feel chaotic throughout this track, with Lil Yachty and Andrew Clemons' vocal refrains playing over and over in this amalgamation of chaos before a slightly distorted Bob Ross sample plays about trying to let go of worrying about something in the long term to create something that makes you happy in the short term, cutting through the noise and leading into the track drive Me crazy!.

A bassline leads into this track off the Bob Ross sample to create a track that feels like a discoier version of something you might've found off Wildflower by The Avalanches. This song brings back Diana Gordon for one of the most surprisingly upbeat songs of the album, feeling like it's about to break free of the darkness that's overtaken most of the album so far. Lil Yachty feels like he's gaining confidence again, presumably looking at his happiness in short bursts as he slipping into a rap mindset backed by some strings.

IVE OFFICIALLY LOST VISION!!!! is a heartbreaker. It's the crash after that short high of happiness where you feel like you might finally be better this time. It opens with the ding of an elevator or a hotel foyer as the protagonist is screaming and banging on the walls wishing that short stint of happiness could return to him, falling into a panic as anxiety consumes him. The protagonist muses about how maybe the drugs and violence that he's dealt with up until this point of his life is the reason he can't be happy and that maybe he doesn't even deserve happiness, all over a driving rock rhythm. Diana Gordon's voice comes in again trying to be a voice of reassurance, telling Yachty what he wants to hear, that other people's opinions on him and his life shouldn't matter, but this time it doesn't work unlike Justine Skye's feature on THE zone~. The track ends with him presumably doing LSD and slipping into old habits as everything takes a turn for the worse for the rest of the album.

sAy sOMETHINg feels like a love song from one end, but feels more like an extension of Yachty's musings that he doesn't actually deserve anything that brings him happiness. The groove on this track is amazing overall despite the darker themes. The track ends on a snipper of one person asking another how he scored his girlfriend, responding with what amounts to "telling her vapid compliments till she liked him" in the most self-depreciating way to end the track.

paint THE sky is and extremely overdramatic love song, once again unclear whether it's about a girlfriend or drugs, implying that whichever relationship it is about is extremely self-destructive. I think at this point my notes about the instrumentals kinda runs dry so I don't have too much to say about them. I think it is interesting how using the sound byte of two people talking about a relationship makes it much less apparent whether he's talking about an actual relationship or a relationship with drugs and alcohol, but I also might be really dumb.

sHouLd i B is Yacthy grappling with the negative effects of whatever relationship was on the previous song and essentially saying "you know, I should be mad at these bad things, but I'm not, shouldn't I be mad at this, why am I not mad about this, what's wrong with me?" Towards the end of the track a guitar solo comes in as he has a sort of realisation that even if he's not mad, he should at least have the self-respect to not just roll over and take the stuff that's causing him pain, emphasised by a guitar soloing underneath Yachty's vocals.

The Alchemist. is a song that begins with Lil Yachty ending MGK's whole career as a pop punk artist, making a switch into a ragey, roudy pop punk sound that absolutely rips. Foushee returns on this track giving a nice back and forth with some slower paced interludes. Love this track, and the energy makes what comes next even more intense.

REACH THE SUNSHINE. is the closing track, and compared to the track WE SAW THE SUN!, the sunshine on this track is reached by the protagonist essentially giving up. The path that Yachty's character took to reach happiness ended up to dive further down into that darkness that was holding him down and just telling himself that he's not a good person and he can't actually be redeemed. Everything blasts with these hellish sounding instrumentals to end off the album. Daniel Cesar comes in on the track to similarly assert Yachty's fall to his demons, leaving the album on a darker note that it seemed like it was going to end up at the halfway point.

Overall, love this album, definitely some spots where it drags but holy shit if it ain't impressive as hell.