Well, I was extremely excited for this new album based on the singles I'd heard. I will say one thing for all the Tech N9ne fans. This sounds nothing like any of his other albums for the most part. Let's jump into my thoughts. I'll be covering the Deluxe Version for this review, however I'll include a score for the regular album at the end. This album is produced by Seven except for where noted otherwise.
1. Habanero (feat. Mackenzie Nicole)
The biggest thing that I can say about this album is that Seven turned his production up to 11 on this album. There is some absolutely fantastic production, in my opinion some of the best in Tech's career. This song is a great example of that. The intro to this song was alright until he said Speedom-Mobile. Lmao. That's just typical Tech N9ne though. I love Mackenzie's chorus on this song, her voice sounds beautiful as usual. She sounds far older and more mature than she normally does too. Tech's flow and rhymes are absolutely insane on the verse on this song. He just has these moments where he ramps the speed up massively and it sounds crazy. He also has some really nice sounding vocals leading up to the chorus. I love the way that the production changes moods throughout the song. The only real issue for me on this song is that Tech has a few corny lines, but overall he kills it. This is a really great intro for the album. 4/5
2. Fresh Out! (feat. Swisher Sleep) (Produced by Mr Porter)
This was the only production on the album I hated with a passion. I feel like it was really close to being a great song. It's kinda experimental, but Tech and Swisher really couldn't make it work for them. Tech's flow is really great and he has crazy rhymes, but no. I'd never heard Swisher Sleep before on this song, but he absolutely spazzed as well. He reminds me of Brotha Lynch Hung messed with Twisted Insane in regards to his voice. I feel like if the production was better this song would be awesome. But the production just makes this song really wack in my opinion. 1/5
3. Kick It With Myself
I liked the production of this song a lot the first few listens. I still like it, but I wish it sounded less artificial sometimes. Tech's verses are all pretty damn solid on this song, however, his hook irritates the shit out of me. I like the second half of it, but the first half is really annoying. This song is close to being good, but it's not. The grating hook and a few annoying lyrics, plus the fairly decent production just make for an ok song. 3/5
4. Drink Up
Although this song was the first single, it wasn't the thing that got me excited for this album. The production was very cool to me, so I was hoping Seven would bring this to the entire album. Thankfully he did, however Tech is by far the biggest problem on this song. The hook is ok, but that part at the start where says "why?" in the background so many times just pisses me off. The second verse is fairly solid, but this song is just uninteresting to me. I understand it's purpose though, it was just one of Tech's typical club songs. I have liked a few of them, but this wasn't one of them, it's just ok. 3/5
5. Don't Nobody Want None (Produced by Seven and Gerald Calliste Jr)
Now this is the song that got me extremely excited for the album. I loved the production and Tech's appproach to the whole song. The only thing I didn't love was the Mizzoo-zoo-zoo part of the hook. The verses, his energy, the hook and his flow just make this song so fun to listen to. The production is such a great throwback to the 80s/90s dance sound. This was definitely my favourite track on the album at this point when I was listening. 5/5
6. Bad Juju (feat. King-ISO)
This is another song that got me really excited. I actually didn't like the preview I heard on Strange Reign at all, so I was pretty worried. This song's production, combined with Tech's good rapping, and ISO's amazing feature really won me over though. This song sounds so Tribal and epic, plus the electronic breakdowns are epic. Tech's alliteration is fantastic too. ISO though. God he killed this shit. His speed, aggression, bars and flow were just through the roof. He really brought this song home for me. This song is great, I didn't love Tech's verse, but I did like it. 4/5
7. Comfortable
I was super surprised when I found out this was a single, I never heard it, and I usually hear every single that Tech ever drops, but with my work I ended up missing 2 singles. This and No Reason. I'll list the things I love about this song. The production, the chorus, Tech's flow, aggression, rhyming and subject matter. The things I hate. The fact that he's a 46 year old man and actually says boo-boo to describe something just for the sake of rhyming, and the part where says "that shit is booty ho" to say something's bad. It's just annoying. Otherwise this is probably one of the top 3 best songs on this album. This is fantastic other than those two lines. 4.5/5
8. No Reason (The Mosh Pit Song) (feat. Machine Gun Kelly and Y2) (Produced by Jeffery "Frizz" James and 206Derek)
The hook on this song is supposedly a shot at Trippie Redd due to his label being called Strainge Entertainment. However, that doesn't change the fact that the hook is garbage. I liked the part at the start a lot, but when he did the weird singing shit it just pissed me off. I hate it and love it at the same time. I like the lyrics and how unhinged he sounds, but I also hate the pitch he's using. Oh well, it's just annoying to me. Tech's verse is great though, and MGK also really murders his verse and matches the energy of the song perfectly. I do like the production of this song for the most part, but I do feel like it could be way more wild at times to make it better for a Mosh Pit. Regardless, this song doesn't quite make it to being good thanks to Y2. Disappointing. 2/5
9. Brightfall Confession (Produced by Joseph Bishara and Seven)
This isn't a song, it's just a corny intro into the next song. The fact that's he's whispering the entire thing is so annoying. The content that he mentions isn't even that scary or dark in nature. But whatever, it's just an interlude so I won't rate it.
10. Brightfall (Produced by Joseph Bishara and Seven)
Apparently the guy that composed The Conjuring helped produce this. Makes sense, because this song has fantastic production. I like the idea of this song a lot, but I hate the small amount of detail that Tech goes into. He basically just says that he has an evil past. Yeah, It's hard to escape my sins and the darkness of the past. But what is that darkness? The production of this song is crazy, but all Tech is really doing is rhyming a lot an talking about how darkness follows him, asking how he can repent, and how life is hard because of what he's done. He basically says it three times in three different ways, and those are the verses. He doesn't even do it badly in my opinion. His delivery, flow and rhyming are fantastic, but his subject matter isn't crazy enough to match the production in my opinion. Plus the outro is so annoying "HIDEOUS, GROTESQUE". This song is just ok to me, it was so close to being amazing, but it wasn't quite there in my opinion. 4/5
11. Red Byers (Say Som'n Do Som'n) (feat. Krizz Kaliko)
This song has my favourite production on the entire album during the verses, but the hook from Krizz Kaliko fucking ruins it. His singing sounds awful because of the background singers synced up with him. I normally love his singing, but this doesn't fit the song whatsoever, I like Big Scoob's interludes between the verses, but god damn that hook is awful. Plus Tech's starts out really strong, his second verse is pretty average and then the third verse is good. This song could've been great, but Krizz fucking ruined it. 2.5/5
12. Never Stray (feat. Navé Monjo)
This is where the album really took a turn for the better, I love the majority of the last few songs. This song has such a beautiful chorus and instrumentation, plus Tech's verses sound great and really make you feel happy. I love his subject matter on this song. It's all about how he didn't fit in, but you should never stray from what you believe is good and right. This song is fantastic to me. 5/5
13. Sho Nuff (Produced by Dem Jointz)
This is a bonus song, and I didn't mind it. I enjoyed the intro, but there was just something missing from this song. I like the chorus a lot, but the verses just don't really work well for me with this instrumental. Considering that the instrumental is kinda average, and the verse just don't work for me personally, I can't really say this song is good, it's ok though. Tech has cool subject matter, but nah. 3/5
14. How I'm Feeling (feat. Snow Tha Product and Navé Monj)
This is another bonus song. I love the start of Navés chorus on this song, the little flow he had going was great, when he started oversinging a little bit once it got to later in the song it was a little grating though. I really love the start of Tech's verse thankfully, plus the production is great. Tech has a lot of funny ass lines actually, so I like his verse a whole lot. Snow murders him though. Not even close. Her verse had so much passion, flow and a great delivery. A lot of the lyrics weren't crazy, but she really made the song hers. This isn't really a song where lyrics are the focus, it's just a good song to bump in the whip as Feefo would say. This song is great. 4/5
15. Not A Damn Thing (Produced by Dem Jointz)
The start of this song sounded really nice to me, I actually enjoy the chorus somewhat too, but the rest of the song is just pretty grating to me. It's ok, but the instrumental gets annoying and Tech isn't really saying much at all. This song is ok I guess. 3/5
16. My Fault (feat. Navé Monjo)
I love all of these last few songs. They're all fantastic in my opinion and I really wish Tech would do this kind of lowkey sound more often. Navé's chorus is fucking great. It's easily his best contribution on the entire album. The instrumental is really great too, I love the guitar mixed with all of the vocals and ambient sounds. Tech tells some really great stories too. He speaks about his short beef with Insane Clown Posse over a misunderstanding from some comments he made on a radio show, and in the second verse he talks about how he isn't allowed to perform his song Areola anymore because of underage fans that flashed their tits for the camera. The parents made the kids say that Tech made her do it, and now he isn't allowed to play that song anymore. This song is essentially a R.I.P Areola track. It sounds stupid out of context, but this song is way too sonically pleasing with good storytelling for me not to enjoy. 4.5/5
17. Tappin In (feat. Joey Cool and Darrein Safron)
This is another bonus track, and this is the best storytelling track on the entire album by far. I suspect that this is the story about how Tech had sex with his best friend Brian's wife. It could be a different person, but Tech's storytelling is really great. He constantly rhymes the whole time, but really paints a great picture. Darrein's singing is really fantastic too, he doesn't rap, he just does different parts throughout the track for the chorus. Joey Cool raps from the perspective of Tech's friend and he does an amazing job too. I can't believe this is a bonus track. 5/5
18. Levitation (feat. Navé Monjo)
This is a track that has a really mainstream feel to it, but Tech does it really really well. Navé has another great chorus, but Tech has this autotuned delivery with a really catchy flow. When you combine that with the awesome production, this song is just a banger. I really enjoy listening to this song a lot, and it's one of my more regular listens just because of how sonically pleasing it is. I love this song. 5/5
19. We Won't Go Quietly (feat. Jordan Omley) (Produced by Michael Mani and Jordan Omley)
This song is absolutely beautiful. A lot of people are going to say it's corny, I can guarantee that much, but Tech's subject is really heart-warming and great. It's very similar in a lot of ways to Believe from something else, but I honestly like this song more. Mainly because of the instrumentation, but Tech feels more heartfelt on this song. Alongside all that, Jordan Omley is a fantastic singer, you can say the chorus is corny, but it's really beautiful to me. This is an incredible way to finish the album. A nice positive note. 5/5
Final thoughts:
This album was pretty damn good. Unfortunately it had a lot of shaky moments, but sadly that's to be expected in any Tech N9ne album. Even my favourite Tech albums have one or two songs I hate. I could never say this was a terrible album. It just had a few moments that really didn't work with me at all. Red Byers sounds great for a while until the terrible hook comes in, but Fresh Out! just sounds awful and has great rapping. Despite all that, I think that this album has some of my favourite Tech N9ne songs ever. Don't Nobody Want None, Never Stray, Levitation and Tappin' In are exactly what I love to hear from Tech, Comfortable is also another fantastic track to add to the list. Those are definitely my top 5 for this album. I have a feeling that Don't Nobody Want None will end up as a Top Ten favourite Tech N9ne track for me. Althought this album had rough moments, the good moments were more than enough for me to justify listening to this. Tech sounds hungry again. That's what I love to see. Hopefully the next few years will be the best of his career.
Overall Result (Deluxe): 75/100
Favourite Tracks: We Won't Go Quietly, Don't Nobody Want None, Comfortable, Never Stray, Tappin' In, Levitation, How I'm Feelin', Bad Juju
Least Favourite: Fresh Out!