Sean Sharp's Diary

I'm not entirely sure why this couldn't have been included with the first half that came out last year. Considering how short each half of the album is, having these as separate discs is pretty confusing. This is an album where everything that isn't the music is bad, and then the music itself is sometimes not bad. Where to even start. The album cover? I mean, what the fuck, obviously he is going for some trendy TikTok background music for certain styles of videos, but then labels it as "d00mscrvll". Interesting choice. He is edited into this so poorly that it starts to make me question if the cover is intentionally bad, unlike the cover for part 1 of this, which was not nearly as off-putting. Then, of course, there are the drones and the parachuting tank, or whatever that is. Is this tongue-in-cheek, disconnected from society, or just random? I have no idea. It's not like the music to me is really meant for that style of war footage video, either. There is then the purpose of an album like this. It exists purely to be utilized as background music for short videos. I mean, it's a niche, and I think it's good that any type of content has music directed towards it, but it's not usually something that I give a standing ovation for. This is almost like being commissioned to make an EDM track for some new big pharma drug in a commercial. Just lifeless and usually done by someone who is just trying to get by, not someone with a shit ton of credentials like Diplo. An album like this has practically no direction in terms of lyrics. It's a bit hard for me to judge the lyrics to "UH AH AH" since it's not in English, but given the name, I don't think it gets too deep. "FLOW STATE" is really just a pander lyrically towards the namesake of the song, no real substance there. "Skittles", my favorite on here, is a bit better, but overall, it isn't anything new in terms of lyrics, but more run-of-the-mill for Juicy J and Project Pat. "I LUV U" features just a filtered backing vocal, which I would be surprised if anyone cared about the lyrical content there. It's not as if I didn't know that EDM lyrics usually aren't of high quality, but here they are just abysmal. The beats are mostly just copycats of each other. After all, for what he is going for, it's not like he would really want to switch it up all that much. "Skittles" production does stand out a bit with it being a bit slower and this glittery grit to it that works much better than the typical bell-ridden beat that comprises the album. "I LUV U" executes the copycat style beat on this the best, as it does become a bit hypnotizing. However, given that the songs are mostly under 2 minutes, it's hard to really connect to the track, or any of them for that matter. "UH AH AH" is probably going to be one of the worst songs I've listened to this year. I don't seek out all kinds of new music all the time, but I do like to think I have a decent range. I have never been able to appreciate something like that, though. The beat is literally beating me into a pulp; the woman's vocals are too K-pop for me (sorry, K-pop), and the vocalizing during the main dance part sounds like someone singing along to what it was supposed to sound like. The features are very hit or miss on this. On one side of things, Odetari, Kodak Black, Mc Gw, and Duis Nulla, do not work here whatsoever. No offense to them, but this production needs someone else. The positive note is that 1nonly, and DVRST's vocals work exceptionally well. 1nonly perfectly slots into this style of music, but I think any fan of his would prefer his more dialed-in production, as this feels like 1nonly rapping over a YouTube "1nonly Type Beat". Then there is Juicy J and Project Pat. I'm not sure how this could have worked out, but if this were just a 34-minute album of those three, I would like this a whole lot better. Throw in a few different switch-ups on the beats and call it a day. I would be a happy man. I think Diplo knows how much better this style of music shines with them, considering Project Pat appears across 7 of the 17 tracks on both discs, and Juicy J shows up on 3.

Laroi embarks on a slow, reflective journey though a breakup with several highs and lows. In a nutshell, the lows boil down to aimless music where several songs feel like interludes into interludes. The high's meanwhile are where the attempts of this album have the stars align. For some reason, this album doesn't feel like it was created with a lot of specific decisions in mind. That's not a bad thing; many artists excel at creating music through this process, and I think it is generally the standard way, especially for new musicians, to produce music. On here, though, it feels like the only decisions they made before creating this album were a few of the artistic styles, like "A PERFECT WORLD" and "THE MOMENT" being more 80s themed. Several of these songs share a very slow stripped-back R&B rhythm, which, duh, makes sense, it's an R&B album, but the ideas are just rehashes of trendy instrumental themes or copies of each other. This leads me to why it does work! Albums with this style of creation, even if they feel aimless, can come out with several good tracks if working with musicians who even hit every once in a while. That is the case here. Starting with the lyrics, I mean, it's a breakup album. Laroi has never hosted a masterclass in songwriting, and while his writing has improved since his teenage years, it's still not at a point where it would be a main draw. His voice has improved significantly over the same time period, and he's finally finding some good consistency with it. I'm sure his moving away from rap has helped, as now he has more opportunities and more pressure to do it right, given the abundance of singing he's doing now compared to then. The production is pretty consistent in terms of style but varies significantly in terms of quality. This album struggles with creating slower, more stripped-down music. It does succeed when it finally tries to build inthroughto something. "THANK GOD", "PRIVATE", and "BACK WHEN YOU WERE MINE" all show this exactly. "THANK GOD" is perhaps the best version of this as the drums build and build throughout, and with Laroi's nice tempo, the lyrics come to a very great ending. It features a glitchy production that doesn't feel like you're in an EDM track, but is appropriate for the style. This is an example of what I wish there was more of here. Not necessarily slow builds, but just more change within each song. "THE MOMENT," for example, has this nice '80s stripped production, but the only memorable part about it is that there is a feature on it. The song has no movement. Laroi is young and has plenty of time to learn and improve. The amount he has changed over the last 5 years is astonishing in its own right. He's not a messiah of music by any means, but I appreciate his dedication and care in creating something new for himself. He is definitely not one to get stuck in a particular musical trend and live there his whole life, at least from what we can tell so far. I would love to continue to listen to what he makes as the songs that do stick the landing, like "A COLD PLAY", deserve the attention.