I think itβs incredible. Definitely a top album of the year for me, and exactly what i had hoped for/expected after hearing the recent loose tracks & everything that heβs been performing live. Earl seems hyper-focused on this concept of brevity, whittling down his music into the most potent and concise form that he possible can to make the most of his time. I also appreciate the way the album is structured/sequenced too, and how each track transitions into the next before any idea or thought is able outstay its welcome. Thereβs an immediacy to SRS that I really dig, and heβs managed to fit more into 25 minutes than a lot of artists are able to do with albums twice that length. No fat to trim, minimal filler, barely any hooks - just raw, honest raps over these warped, hypnotic jazz & soul loops, amounting to an album so densely packed that it seems much longer than it actually is. Really donβt want to ramble too much here but one thing i noticed that I wanted to comment on - Earl touches on the inevitability of death or βsand falling out the hourglassβ at multiple points on here. Thatβs morbid enough on itβs own, but learning that the album, aside from the last two songs, has been done since last year & was meant to help him reconcile with his father who passed away before getting the chance to hear it makes the whole thing even more haunting. Not to draw a direct comparison or anything, but the last album I heard that ended with such a lack of closure was Has-Loβs βIn Case I Donβt Make Itβ from 2011.Honestly I havenβt paid too much attention to how the record was received, but from what i have seen a lot of the criticism (even some of the praise) towards the album regarding the mixing seems to be coming from people who arenβt aware that lofi hip hop even exists or what the appeal of it is. Personally I wouldnβt change anything about the record sonically though, and I really donβt see why anyone who is familiar with the artists Earlβs been building with/influenced by (MIKE, Medhane, Mach, Navy Blue, Sixpress, KNX, Dilla, DOOM, Madlib, etc) would be surprised that SRS sounds the way it does. Overall I love the album, canβt really think of any complaints at the moment aside from wishing some of the unreleased songs that have been floating around for a while, possibly hat trick, mothership, zeldaβs lullaby, or head heavy, made on here but thatβs about it.
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