Album Reveiws: Kehlani and Gary Clark Jr.

I'm not sure what makes something a mix tape instead of a full release. One of those things I don't understand and honestly don't want to take the time to try and understand. This is considered a mix tape apparently from Kehlani. At 9 tracks of new material I would think it is an album. I'm new to her music and so don't know much about her. This collection of tracks is fairly solid, though I would prefer it be more focused on her and less on a featured artist. The best songs are definitely the ones with just her.

This is pretty straight pop R&B and I would say from her voice that is her strong suit and where she should stay. Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.

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At 15 tracks plus two bonus tracks this is definitely not a mix tape. For me it is a bit long, and though it feels coherent it also feels disjointed. He is all over the place with his influences and though he turns every song into a Gary Clark Jr. song and though they all have a dirty angry vibe to them, it still feels a bit disjointed.

"This Land" is an excellent song and hard to just skip past. The rest of the album does not come close to that level. An album like this is hard for me to rate. As a fan of the music I would rate it as a two. As a piece of art I would rate it as a three. Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good. Ultimately the art component wins. He's bringing in influences from Prince, to reggae, to old blues, to Cream and ultimately making them all work and all sound somehow 2019. I'm not the biggest guitar rock fan in the world and so that's why for me as music it's not something I'll necessarily coming back to, but still it's good art.