The long awaited full release of Kevin Abstract's latest project 'ARIZONA BABY' has finally released along with 5 new tracks to add to the previous EPs leading up to the project 'Arizona Baby' and 'Ghetto Baby' which contained 3 songs each. In this review I'll cover the 5 new tracks given I've already given my opinion on the last two EPs.
Track 1; Use Me; This song starts off sounding like TLOP Kanye and advances into classic BROCKHAMPTON sound with some added cricket sounds for good measure. The subject matter here covers growing up back in his hometown of Corpus Chrisiti, Texas to a much broader message of the idea of "generational trauma" being transferred from one generation to another. The song seems to dive more and more into some kind of hole and finishes with an instrumental that reminds me a bit of the beat on '5% TINT' off Travis Scott's ASTROWORLD. Personally this song was a little disappointing given I had high expectations from it being put out as a snippet in promo for the album, the mixing they changed from the time that the snippet came out and the official release has affected my opinion, but by no means is it a bad song.
Track 2; Peach; The features on this song are absolutely gorgeous, Dominic Fike (who appears as a feature on the penultimate track), JOBA and bearface's contributions flow together with Kevin's rapping verses perfectly. The hook provided by Fike is the definition of an ear worm and Kevin's verses are extremely catchy too my favorite being the first one where he says a phrase I've come to love a lot "I tell my baby that I'm bulletproof". Overall it's a fantastic summer song that'll be on repeat until it goes under 20 degrees.
Track 3; American Problem; This is my favorite track on the entire album it has some powerful Outkast vibes but Kevin makes that sound his own and doesn't sound like an artist drowning in his influences. On the song he covers how he came to know that he was gay, his apparent drug addiction and his lack of care for money. The instrumental has some extremely high points like the out of nowhere piano hits that come in every now and then and the wavy synths that play throughout the background of the first section of the song. The second part bangs out of nowhere from a rather melodic song to a straight to the point rap verse over a dark beat that flows out of the fever dream that is the first part of the song after a bridge where Kevin says in an autotune voice "West side, West siiideeee". This verse is dope Kevin covers one of his main influences Tyler, The Creator and how people in his hometown see him including his principal which is kinda odd but hey whatever.
Track 4; Crumble; This song is like 'ayt'. Dominic Fike provides a nice intro and Jack Antonoff who's been co-producing the record with BROCKHAMPTON producer Romil Hemnani provides a nice hook. But other than that the song doesn't do much for me, Kevin's verses are just okay and he raps them in a very laid back tone that kinda bores you after hearing how he finished off the rapping on the last song. Yeah overall this song is just okay
Track 5; Boyer; This song named after one of Kevin's childhood friends is an absolute bop and another personal favorite off the final product of the album. The hook is great and very Kevin Abstract off of one of the 'SATURATION' projects. The production is also fantastic and reminiscent of a beat we could've heard on 'Iridescence'. The lyrics are good too but not a high point of the song in my opinion although his flow is precise as hell and he hits every beat perfectly.
The 3rd EP that now forms 'ARIZONA BABY' is my favorite of the 3 (it gets a little help from being 5 songs instead of 3). A highlight of this whole album has been the production so shoutout Romil Hemnani and Jack Antonoff for killing it on like... every song. Kevin Abstract has 100% advanced his solo career with this project and right now it holds first place when it comes to his solo albums (that could be cause it's the newest and could change back to 'American Boyfriend' after I inevitably get sick of this record after the amount of times I will have listened to it). After like 40 listens given its somewhat short runtime I'm giving the album a strong 7.5 closing in on a 8/10.