Welcome to Astroworld, Travis Scott's highly anticipated third solo album has finally arrived. By now everyone knows who the Houston rapper/producer is and crazy how his come up has launched him into stardom since his 2013 mixtape Owl Pharoah. One issue had with this project with like many others, was this gonna live up the hype and meet exceptions that had people getting built up for the last two years? Birds I enjoyed the album for what it was a time when I reviewed but it was one of those albums I never went back to weeks after it dropped, looking back at that album, it was mixtape pretending to be an album. His collaborative album with Quavo of the Migo's was very disappointing and it just sounded a Travis album with tons of Quavo features. So the biggest question overall for Astroworld was, Does it live up to the hype?
Astroworld is not a perfect record and does a have a few issues but overall it meet exceptions and exceed them quite a bit. I like how the albums start off with "STARGAZING", I love the psychedelic production, paints the pretty image in my head where I bought my ticket and I am walking into the amusement park. The beat switch is a nice transition and Travis's verse has me coming down from his high spitting and reflecting about his rise to stardom and remembering his roots, overall a great start to the album. "CAROUSEL" with a surprise feature from Frank Ocean, who they both have done a track together called "Lens" but I like their collab here than that track. I love how the Beastie Boy's sample is used where he's more a haunting hollering feel than a hype hollering on the original track, Travis verse is pretty nice but easily Frank steals the show. I love his own verse has his own hook and when he does the hook the beat switch to a melodic vibe, plus how his vocals in his verse from his normal vocals to autotune vocals is a pretty nice concept that worked well, I feel like both men are in that experimental stage in their career.
"SICKO MODE" has a lot of people going crazy over and I am one of those people, cause I never heard so damn beat switches in a one rap song, like ever. First, the song was hard to stay focus when I first heard this track, I thought I was on like track five or six when Drake part came in towards the end of the track. Travis's part is really good, I love the bouncy production and Swae Lee's vocals were good. Tay Keith production on Drake's part was great and his verse was better than half of Scorpion, I need that Tay Keith and Drake album, it reminds me of 2015 Drake's sound or maybe a Travis and Drake album, they have decent chemistry. "RIP SCREW" pays homage to DJ Screw and it's a nice interlude, I love the homage in tribute how the vocals slow down and then switch back to a normal pitch in Swae's verse. The instrumental does have a smooth summer late night drive feel to it. "STOP TRYING TO BE GOD" has an all-star cast of features, Cudi hums his way through in a heavenly fashion, Stevie Wonder's is playing the harmonica which adds a blues to a track that already has a gospel and lucid dreams to the production. James Blake vocals hit my soul and had me shed a tear and had me like Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z looking up into the sky while it was raining (which it did where I live funny enough), this whole track gave me that chill coming down your spine if I could describe in a sentence.
Up and comer rapper Juice WRLD kicks off the song "NO BYSTANDERS" which relates to a chain that Travis wore and a message for his fans where he wants people to rage and not stand around. Travis on the pre-chorus is very catchy and the background vocals make the whole song grand. Sheck Wes on the hook and it's an interpolation of Three Six Mafia track "Tear Da Club 97". Travis flow what makes the track great and gets me hyped to beat someone up or have a solid work out, I do like the first couple of bars on the third verse cause family functions mixed with friends are never a good thing, which I can relate to from past experience. "SKELETONS" and "WAKE UP" are the long-awaited collab effort from Travis and Tame Impala, "SKELETONS" is decent interlude with vocals from Pharell, Kevin Parker, and Weeknd. "WAKE UP" has beautiful guitar strums, Abel sounds perfect on this track, I wished he switched up to this style of production for his solo work. Travis contribution is just ok, Weeknd like with most of the time he's featured he makes the song his own but nonetheless I enjoy the song for what it is. "5% Tint" is another highlight for me, Travis does his own version of the Goodie Mob's song "Cell Therapy" on the hook, His flow and lyrics are top tier here. I am getting a lot of vibes of an "Antidote" pt.2 from this track. I love the how the piano is played, I am picturing like those cartoons from the 1920's to 1940's of the character playing the piano and he is playing the beat here.
'NC-17" I didn't care at first but it has become a grower for me, The wind chime is very odd to hear in the production but I thought it was good. Travis weird vocal pitching was different, remind of Swae Lee a bit. 21 Savage's verse is pretty good and funny at the same time cause he does have some gem's, "I nutted on her cheek, her new nickname is Babyface" is my favorite bar he has said thus far in his entire career. "ASTROTHUNDER" is probably one of my favorite "interludes" of the album mainly for the production, which has credits from Thundercat, One of the members from BADBADNOTGOOD, Frank Dukes, and John Mayer oddly enough. "YOSEMITE" is a cool track, I like the chords and the sample. Gunna feature is pretty cool, I haven't heard a lot from him and he does remind of Young Thug but I thought his feature was cool, his flow made the track catchy. Travis does copy his flow too and Travis does a pretty good job, also look I don't like Nav but why did Mike Dean do him dirty with fucking up the mixing on his verse, his "contribution" was alright though. I fucking love the next track "CAN'T SAY" mainly the hypnotic production from Frank Dukes and Wondergurl. Don Toliver is an unknown to me and many but I love him on this track, his voice is odd but he a lot of charisma and he stands out in a huge crowd, He makes the whole song great, Travis voice on here reminded of Abel's in a way but he did well too.
"WHO? WHAT?" and "BUTTERFLY EFFECT" is my least two favorite tracks on this album, Mainly "BUTTERFLY EFFECT" cause the song is a year old and "WATCH" was my favorite single. "WHO? WHAT?" with Quavo and Takeoff of the Migo's I don't care for are mainly cause I am sick of the Migo's at this point unless your name is Offset. "HOUSTONFORNICATION" is where Travis shows the more personal side of himself on the track, the tempo and the hi-hats are very nice, my favorite beat on the entire album and Travis flow is really great on here. Travis raps his personal experience in his hometown and raps all the reckless actives in his youth. 'COFFEE BEAN" ends the album with another personal track about his relationship with his baby mother Kylie Jenner, and also his fears and self-doubt. Travis' voice sounds like he woke up with morning breath and decide to record this song, I love the lyrical content here, Travis according to him talks about how Kylie was warned to date him cause she gotta protect "the brand" and if you do, it would ruin her rep, he also spits how due to their busy schedules they weren't around much when she was pregnant and how she abused Travis about and how he still can't deal with all the fame. I love the electric guitar on this track as well and it's a good closer for the album.
Final Thoughts are this album was a good ride to sit and listen through. Travis does take the concept and same ideas that his mentor Kanye does with his album where he gets an all-star cast of artists and makes the albums good and Travis did a great job here with ASTROWORLD. Crazy how far he has come from his debut mixtape up to now, I think the whole "Travis isn't a star" debates need to end here cause this album had Travis brust through that bubble. The album does have few issues where he does drag a bit towards the end of the album, I would've got rid of maybe two or three songs, the mixing could've been tweaked on some tracks too, and I think for the hip-hop purists out there they ain't enjoy the lyrical content but who listens to Travis for lyrics? ASTROWORLD was a fun time indeed.
FAVORITE TRACKS: HOUSTONFORNICATION, 5% TINT, STOP TRYING TO BE GOD, NO BYSTANDERS, STARGAZING, CAROUSEL, SICKO MODE, ASTROTHUNDER, WAKE UP, NC-17, RIP SCREW, COFFEE BEAN, SKELETONS
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