Post Malone’s sophomore album beerbongs & bentleys had fans waiting for a long (and I emphasize long) time. Yet, even with that, the oddly named piece quickly soared to the top of the charts. Now with that said, this is no where close to my first listen. However, only my second time going through the whole thing.
He chooses to start off with “Paranoid”, a song about his fear of manipulative friends over a funky electronic beat. While often getting criticized for being a “culture vulture” and hopping on the rap bandwagon, I feel as if Post is more of an artist with a very versatile pallete and it is demonstrated in this first piece. He doesn’t show of much rapping, but instead includes lines where he swings he voice from rap-like bits to belting out notes; an impressive talent.
“Spoil My Night” and “Rich & Sad” both start to prove my idea that Post is scared of relationships. Both are decent songs (Swae Lee’s part is fantastic) however, I start to get this Taylor Swift-esque vibe when he has back to back songs in a row regarding a breakup. It gets to the point where you are thinking half way through, “Come on man. Just move on already.”
Nevertheless, he quickly picks things back up with “Zack and Codeine”. I think the popularity of this song more than anything comes from the reference he is making. A majority of his fans grew up watching The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, so it almost makes it comical to listen too. However, he low key sent shots at mumble rappers and his industry haters with the line:
“All these rappers sound the same now, sayin’ I’m to blame, now y’all see me on the TV.”
While he has some other solid songs off the middle of the album like “Takin’ Shots”, “Psycho”, and “Better Now”, none can truly contest with his biggest single and most successful piece yet.
“Rockstar” is truly a masterpiece from the beat to the lyrics to the feature. It perfectly describes the industry, demonstrating that rap truly is the new rock. This has pretty much been true since Run DMC broke through the wall on Walk This Way by Aerosmith. Tank God killed the production with a beautiful track of a haunting piano layed over perfectly paired hi-hats and snares. Post Malone makes reference after reference to the rock industry, from ACDC to The Doors to even the book I’m With The Band. And then to wrap it all up, 21 Savage goes hard on his verse.
Post continues to the later half of his album with a combination of decent songs like “92 Explorer” and “Blame It On Me” but loses it for me with “Jonestown (Interlude)” and “Otherside”. I always think it’s cheesy when a singer steals another song’s melody (aka Kansas’ “Dust In The Wind”). However, Post’s lyrics and references still get me to chuckle when he uses a complaining tone on the track “Same Bitches” and his reference to Michael Scott of The Office in “Candy Paint”.
But what stunned me the most about this album is his song “Stay”. The young artist out of Texas demonstrates his ability to drastically do things different with this acoustic piece. He was first attracted to the guitar from the video game Guitar Hero and it is a good thing he hasn’t gone back. Post Malone has such a beautiful voice for such an ugly man and every song hits the emotions. The song is almost a part two of acoustic pieces, with “Feeling Whitney” off his rookie album Stoney having a similar vibe, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of these in the future.
Overall:
I was a huge fan of Stoney and had very high expectations heading into this album. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like they were matched. There were just too many songs off this album that were forgetable and I just truly couldn’t vibe with it. In that case, I decided to give beerbongs and bentleys:
6.8
It pains me to do it because I am a huge Post Malone fan, however, it just didn’t meet my expectations. I really hope to see him play in the next Celebrity Basketball All-Star Game after his song “Ball For Me”. I have a feeling White Inverson won’t have much of a game though.
-Heff
Colossus Music 