BY JOSEPH DEBELL, STAFF WRITER
Album cover courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Joe gives “Lets Start Here.” a 4/5 stars
Stars from Wikimedia Commons
“Let’s Start Here” by Lil Yachty has been making critics turn their heads for the past several weeks due to its stylistic change to his discography. However, the popularity of this LP isn’t entirely caused by the change in pace for Lil Yachty. It’s impressive because he puts his own spin on the psychedelic rock sound.
Despite this being Lil Yachty’s first psychedelic rock record, the instrumentation on this LP is impressive due to how comfortable Lil Yachty sounds despite stepping out of his comfort zone.
Some of that can be credited to the laundry list of artists and producers that helped Lil Yachty comfortably step into this genre. Lil Yachty definitely kept his ear to the ground so that he could work with artists that are masters or are students of the sounds he wanted to emulate on “Let’s Start Here.”
Texturally, this LP is stunning and incorporates multiple characteristics of psychedelic rock. The biggest example of this being the intro track “the BLACK seminole.” Lil Yachty’s lyrics also scratch a dreamlike and introspective itch.
This song is an almost seven-minute-long track that shows shades of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.” It’s a multi-phase piece of progressive psychedelic pop that imitates yet is not derivative of “Us and Them” by Pink Floyd.
Another song, “THE zone~” sounds eerily similar to the group Tame Impala. This is a credit to how well this song is mixed and produced. Lil Yachty’s lyrics and vocals feel fully realized on this one.
It is then when this record takes a disco detour with the track “drive ME crazy!” This song features a guest vocal performance from Diana Gordon on the chorus of the track. This song’s production is heavy, intense and has tons of vocal vibrato.“drive ME crazy!” shows shades of The Weeknd’s LP Dawn FM.
“Let’s Start Here”, however, has more hits than misses. Tracks like “pRETTy” fall short despite having interesting moments, not to mention the off the cuff yet somehow sounding not off the cuff interlude “:(failure(:.” Lil Yachty’s giggles and spoken word delivery on this feel forced while attempting to sound as relaxed and nonchalant as possible.
Even though “Let’s Start Here” does not maintain a perfect record all the way through, its peaks are definitely what make it a holistic experience. I just hope that this isn’t Lil Yachty’s first and last attempt at something as ambitious as “Let’s Start Here.”
debelljb22@bonaventure.edu
