So, about a week ago, Juice WRLD released his second studio album, Death Race For Love,
and yeah it’s not that great.
Commercially the album is doing really well, so I guess in that sense it’s a success,
but the reception from fans and listeners doesn’t seem to be all that positive.
So this video is gonna be explaining why I thought the album wasn’t all that amazing,
but if you wanna get an idea of what I did like from it, I’ll leave my twins reaction
to the album linked in the description below.
This is CDTVProductions, follow me on twitter to see me get harassed with different images
of rappers on every tweet, and let’s talk about Death Race For Love.
So Many Tracks, So Little To Note:
So yeah, let’s address the obvious thing, 22 tracks, not necessary.
Who would’ve guessed?
This tracklist could be cut in half, and I would still think the album is relatively
mediocre, but at least it wouldn’t be draining to listen to all at once.
The length does nothing but completely hinder the overall quality of this project even more.
Here’s my personal tracklist for the album if it was to be shortened to 11 songs, with
the ones I feel to be the most filler ridden cut off, and yeah, its significantly more
bearable to listen to.
If he shortened the track list like that, it means he would be able to put more focus
into a more concentrated group of songs, and really flesh out and perfect those sounds
and concept.
I’m just saying if you have 22 kids it’s really hard to give the same amount of love
to each one.
I don’t know if this was done for the purpose of multiplying the album’s streams, if the
label pushed him to make it this long, or if Juice just genuinely felt it needed each
and every track it contains, but it really doesn’t.
By the end of your album, your listeners should be super satisfied while still wanting more
from you in the near future.
This album makes me wanna avoid Juice’s music for the next few months because honestly
I’m burnt out from listening to his music.
Sure he’s got my streams in the short term, but long term it’s hurt his reputation,
not just for me, but for a lot of people, including his very own fans.
That’s definitely not ideal.
What Juice WRLD Had To Say:
The second big thing I’ve noticed is that; every time Juice WRLD tries to say something
to defend this album, he just reveals more reasons why this project is kinda weak.
The first thing he said was that the whole album was freestyled, later going on to say
only 2 or 3 tracks were pre-written, and that he should be receiving a lot of credit for
it.
But here’s my problem with that.
That insight into the album making process makes so much sense.
Because in hindsight, you can tell the album was freestyled, and I’m afraid to say that
isn’t a compliment.
I can almost guarantee this album would be better if Juice WRLD wrote it.
Maybe that way the subjects would be more varied, maybe that way these songs would sound
less like stuff he’s made before just less polished, maybe that way it would sound more
consistent.
I would give him credit for freestyling it if the album was actually good to me, but
it’s just not.
The knowledge that it mostly came off the top of his head doesn’t improve the album
experience in any way, I don’t see how this defence is supposed to work in his favour.
BUT ladies and gentlemen it does not end there, I really wish it did.
Even more recently, Juice has came out to say that the album, this whole 22 track album,
this entire 72 minute long album, was recorded in 4 days.
4 ******* days.
So not only has he publicly admitted to not taking time to write much for the project,
he’s now also admitted to taking almost 0 time with it at all.
That’s an average of 5 and a half songs per day, and I’m no expert but it’s kinda
hard to ensure the songs are quality when you’re recording them that frequently.
Man he’s just digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole with these statements.
Again, it’s an issue of this not being impressive when the album is so mediocre.
I would be impressed if I heard Kendrick recorded To Pimp A Butterfly in 4 days, I’d find
it hard to believe but I’d be impressed.
I’m not impressed when I find out Death Race For Love was recorded in 4 days.
Lemme draw a comparison.
If I put out a video and so many of my viewers were saying it’s mediocre or not good, they’re
not gonna be happy at all if I try to defend it by saying “oh but I just freestyled the
whole video, all of the top of this head right here, and I recorded and edited it in 3 hours”.
You know what they’d say?
Write a script, take your time, and give us a video that’s actually good.
And those my friends, are the reasons why I think Death Race
For Love failed.
(Outro)