1) Second Thoughts on SR3MM
While the Rae Sremmurd triple disc album was a bit long, it was also a fun listening experience. I got to listen to what each member would sound like on their own project. My original ranking after my first listen was Jxmtro > SR3MM > Swaecation. However, after relistening to some songs from these projects, my ranking has changed. I believe Rae Sremmurd works best when they are together rather than apart. I think Swae Lee cannot carry an album by himself, and his lack of lyrical substance made Swaecation an absolute burden of a listen. Jxmtro was entertaining, but also highly inconsistent. The songs were either really exciting or really boring. While Slim Jxmmi is a good rapper, he's also a bit one-dimensional, and unlike Swae, he cannot make a catchy hook to save his life. Too many songs suffer from having repetitive hooks. I think I was too harsh on SR3MM when I reviewed it. Saying that half of the songs were already released as singles seems like a petty reason to give such an enjoyable album a 3 rather than a 4 or 5. There wasn't a bad song on that disc. I could see myself going back to SR3MM more than Jxmtro, so my new ranking is SR3MM > Jxmtro > Swaecation.
2) Second Thoughts on Die Lit
When I reviewed Die Lit, I said that the album suffered from being too long, making it worse than the self-titled album from Playboi Carti. There are way too many good songs that could possibly make that the case. Nine tracks from Die Lit have made my playlist, whereas seven tracks from Playboi Carti made my playlist. I also mentioned in my latest Playlist Additions post that I did a complete 180 on "Poke It Out" which was one of my least favorite tracks after my first listen. I will admit that the unexpected praise from music publications and YouTubers has helped me form my current stance, but after giving this album a second thought, I believe that it's the better of Playboi Carti's releases and it's easily one of my favorite albums released in 2018.
3) My Changing Thoughts on Juice WRLD
I can't get enough of "Lucid Dreams." However, before I heard that song, if you asked me what I thought of Juice WRLD, I would have said that he's gonna be a passing fad and that "All Girls Are the Same" is a terrible song. I still stand by my thoughts of "All Girls Are the Same," but holy fuck "Lucid Dreams" is amazing. It made me see the potential in Juice WRLD, and how unique he is as an artist. He sounds like a blend of Lil Uzi Vert and Post Malone. I can't get enough and I can't wait to hear his debut project.
4) Should I stick with my rating system?
Before I started seriously reviewing music, one of the ideas I was torn about was how I would rate albums. I think the numerical score is one of the least important parts of a review, but it's pretty fun to rate things on a scale. I went with a rating out of 5 as opposed to a rating out of 10 or giving out 1-5 stars, but I'm not too sure about the choice I've made. I'm not asking for input. It's my blog and I'd like to make my own decisions. However, I'm not sure about whether to stick to my current rating system or move to a 1-10 scale. I originally went with a 5 point scale because it seemed like rating things out of 5 was easier, but maybe I was overthinking rating things out of 10. It seems like giving scores out of 10 is the better idea since many music reviewers seem to go with that scale. I will think about it, and if I do move to the 1-10 scale, I'll say so in the next post.
This concludes the first post of this series. On Second Thought... will be a monthly series and will come in the middle of each month. My next post will be an announcement of another series of posts I came up with as well as a revisit of A$AP Rocky's last project, AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP, and both Cozy Tapes from A$AP Mob. I mainly will be doing this ahead of the release of Testing.
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