By: Enoch Whitaker Welcome to the fourth edition of New Music Friday, where I will be reviewing the most notable releases from last Friday. This includes albums, EPs, and singles from a variety of musical genres. After listening to each project a couple times, I will give my personal thoughts and opinions on it, then a score out of 10. This week I will be reviewing “El Dorado,” the latest album from Califronia Rapper/Singer 24kGoldn, and “Montero,” a single by Georgia Native, Lil Nas X.
To start off this week's edition of New Music Friday, we have the debut album of rising artist 24kGoldn. The album is titled “El Dorado” and has a run time of just under 40 minutes. To give some insight into his past, the Califronia songwriter first blew up a year ago with his first two viral singles: “Valentino” and “City of Angels.” Shortly after, he then dropped his first mixtape titled “Dropped Outta College” which was nothing short of average with him showing great potential. Listening to his latest single releases from the past couple months have left me excitedly waiting for this album to come out. Sadly though, I did not find this album to be what I was hoping to hear. On “El Dorado” it feels like 24kGoldn is confused on what he wants to be, musically speaking. A week or two back, the California artist self proclaimed that he was better than “more than half of the rappers in the game.” With that bold statement one would think that this album would be a very rap-centered album, but that isn't true. Pulling up the album on Apple Music and Spotify, it is listed under the “Pop” genre. I would have no problem with that if it actually was the case. Just about a half of these songs are way more rap than they are pop. In my opinion, 24kGoldn is a much better popstar than he will ever be a rapper, and I mainly enjoy the pop songs on the album. 24kGoldn seems to be trying to entertain both audiences and it makes this album worse than if he just stuck with one sound. I’d like to sum up this album with an old saying: “If you hunt two rabbits at once, you end up losing both.” Overall, I am feeling a solid five on “El Dorado” by 24kGoldn. The second review for this week is “Montero” by Lil Nas X. The Georgia artist first blew up with his 2019 record breaking single “Old Town Road.” Since then, he has released one EP and several singles, all to high critical acclaim. To give some history about this song, it was first teased in June 2020, going by the name “Call Me By Your Name.” The song seems to take inspiration from the 2017 romance film going by the same name. It wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that he told his audience that one, he would be releasing the song soon and two, that the new title would be “Montero,” which is also the artist's first name. Now it is time to talk about the actual song itself, which to no surprise, Lil Nas X delivers again. The track starts off with some angelic harp-like cords that set the foundation of the instrumental. The instrumental then continues to layer itself with some potent guitars and drums. The singing on the track by Lil Nas is not anything spectacular and seems to be sub-par at some points, but it doesn’t really affect the track in a negative way at all. The lyrics are set up in a very simple way with an intro, a chorus, a verse, a chorus, and then the song is over. That is what is most commonly found in music these days and it can seem a little repetitive. Despite those couple of complaints, I still really enjoy this single. Lil Nas X seems really confident and comfortable on this song, and in my opinion it was well worth the wait. I am feeling a strong eight on “Montero” by Lil Nas X. This week we had a lot of highs and lows when it comes to new music being released. From 24kGoldn’s underwhelming album to the flying highs of “Montero”, there was plenty of great music released last Friday. I would like to thank you for reading the latest edition of New Music Friday and I hope to see you next time.
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