Drink More Water 6 is by far my least favorite album of the year. With a combination of unimpressive vocals and amateurish flows this album makes for an extremely unpleasant listening experience. I didn’t like the new Yung Lean album at all, but it did succeed in some aspects. The album somewhat distanced Yung Lean and the vaporwave aesthetic, the album served a purpose. Drink More Water 6 doesn’t serve any purpose. It isn’t good to play at parties, it isn’t good to listen to if you’re sad, it just isn’t very good period.
This album is very diverse sonically. It chances from upbeat trap music to a type of alternative r&b multiple types throughout the album. I am fine with the diverse soundtrack, but I feel like it could have been organized much better. Listening to the album track after track is a confusing experience. You have upbeat bangers like “Live For Real” right next to down tempo songs like “I Only Trip With U” and “Where I’m At”, and it’s just inconsistent. While this could be seen as just a nitpick of the album it really distracted me. When an artist knows how to organize their tracklist it makes the listening experience so much better. Take Earl Sweatshirt’s 2015 project I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside for example. The album had intelligence, and lined up songs in a way that made you feel emotion. Putting “Mantra”, “Faucet”, and “Grief” right next to each other was a great move as it left the listener with an intense feeling of sadness. At the end of the album the album started becoming more uptempo and it was fun to listen to. If Sweatshirt actually had full control over the tracklist, and some of the songs weren’t cut out, I can imagine how much better the album would have been. The way an artist’s organizes his/her tracklist is very important, and I’m disappointed at the organization of Drink More Water 6’s tracklist.
This album isn’t very impressive lyrically, but Makonnen has never really seemed to care too much about lyrics, so I will let it slide. What I won’t let slide is his simple flows. On “Uwonteva” “Big Gucci” Makonnen delivers a choppy and simple flow, and that’s pretty consistent with the rest of the album. The rap parts of this album fail in every aspect, and so do the singing parts. Makonnen doesn’t have a great voice, but he is definitely a good singer. My problem with him is that he sings with a really weird inflection in his voice. On songs like “I Only Trip With U” it really comes out, and it sounds like he’s trying to sing like David Byrne. The only problem is that he isn’t David Byrne. He doesn’t have the same charm and it just comes across as annoying to me.
The only thing I can really say I liked about this album was the production. It was pretty solid all around, but it didn’t make up for the album’s flaws. Overall, this album was very unpleasant to listen to, if you want to listen to some good trap I would recommend the new Lil Yachty album, and if you want to listen to some good alternative r&b listen to literally anything else. I’m disappointed that I didn’t like this album because I was coming into it with high expectations. Lets all hope Makonnen can rebound on his next album.
Favorite Songs: Want You, Where I’m At
Least Favorites Songs: Uwonteva, Big Gucci, Sellin, Live For Real
