Death Race For Love - Juice WRLD: Review
Juice WRLD
is the stage name for Jarad Higgins the Chicago trap rapper and singer who blew up to stardom last year with his Lucid Dreams single, debut album and subsequent features including Ski Mask The Slump God's Nuketown, Travis Scott's No Bystanders, and Lil Yachty's Yacht Club. In 2019 he has kept busy dropping two singles in the weeks leading up the the release of his massive 22 track and hour plus length sophomore album Death Race For Love.
Review By Lavender:
I'm willing to admit what many more headass critics won't. Juice Wrld's Lucid Dreams is a fantastic song. It landed near the middle of my top 100 singles of the year last year and for a huge radio hit it is both trendy and fantastically performed. Juice clearly as talent and on his debut album Goodbye & Good Riddance he desperately needed help channeling his talent into songs that are unique and well formed. In my review for the album, which some personal friends of mine were not happy about, I noted that Juice had the capability to make a classic, he just needed to refine his songwriting and work with producers that understood what made him different from other trendy trap rappers. So much to my dismay Juice confirmed a few days before this albums release that it is 22 tracks long, a symptom of the streaming era of music where more songs is better for nearly every money making metric. All I could hope for is that Juice would only pick out the best of the best for this project and that even if the same sounds came up time and time again that he would bring his best every time, and in that regard its safe to say I was let down.
Death Race For Love is a longer project than I think many of us were comfortable with Juice releasing, so let me split my review into two halves. Firstly lets talk about the version of this album that I actually enjoy.
Empty is the opening song and a pretty good one that captures why people like Juice so much. Touchy and personal lyrics that are relatably sad and a passionate performance start the project off right with a solid tune. Hear Me Calling comes a little bit later in the project and is one of the sweetest tracks the album has to offer, the stripped back drums that support it make it a song that stands out in a project of samey repetition.
Robbery is a song that has grown on me, the exacerbated performance on the chorus from Juice is definitely one that has grown on me and I went from thinking it killed the song, to agreeing with his fans that it actually makes it. I didn't know going into the project but this version of Juice world is one I wish I heard a lot more, his voice stretching to its limit as he croons over these emo trap choruses is what helps set him apart from the crowd. Syphilis is an absolute BANGER, nothing else really needs to be said it's probably the hardest song on the album listen to it.
Who Shot Cupid? is one of the best and most unique instrumentals on the project but I wish Juice had brought something a little bit more interesting to it. Out My Way on the other hand follows the formula that this album stick way too tightly too, but this track actually does it pretty well and is one of the most fun songs here. ON GOD is one of my favorite songs here, Young Thug and Juice WRLD has fantastic chemistry together and Thugger's voice is a very refreshing one after nearly an hour of Juice. They bounce in and out of verses and hooks with and prove to be fantastic together the whole time, don't miss this track if you're a fan of either of the artists.
10 Feet and She's The One are the final two tracks I enjoyed. Both try less to be a generic trap beat and find a way to revel in their uniqueness towards the end of the project. Maze and Make Believe technically belong in this category ad they are generic but far from bad songs, just not standout moments.
For the second half of this review I'd like to talk about the version of Death Race For Love that I was absolutely dreading. The generic, repetitive and lifeless emo trap formula done to death over and over again. Demonz is a boring and totally skippable interlude that barely lasts a minute and a half but somehow feels too long. Fast is simply an underwritten tune, the verses sound improvised and the hook is so far from sticking, Flaws And Sins does this even worse as Juice's performance doesn't even seem to match the halfway finished instrumental this track has.
The Bees Knees is a decent song that is generic but listenable in its first half but during its five and a half minute runtime transitions into a completely unbearable second half. Speaking of completely unbearable now is probably where I should bring up some of the Xbox Live freestyle grade lyrics that show up on this album in its worst moments. Big and Feeling has completely awful lyrics and nothing else of substance to pay attention to making the corny and completely nonsensical bars even worse. I could pick out so many lyrics in these songs and others that are absolutely terrible but for the best example I will turn to the horribly titled HeMotions. This is an entire track that revolves around the refrain "Goin through motions, muddy emotions, back on my bullshit, devil emoji". *sigh*
Ring Ring is a cringe inducing callback to some of the most emotionally wrought emo rock of the 2000s that tries to work guitar into trap and just like every single other time anyone has tried it, it ends up terrible. Rider and Desire both ruin streaks of decent tunes and are two of the worst moments on the entire project. Rider is a straight up yikes worthy song with all the repetition of Gucci Gang without any of the banging instrumental of catchy hook to appeal. Desire features Juice singing at the absolute worst I've ever heard him and how somebody could possibly sit through this entire thing more than once is beyond me. Finally Won't Let Go is another example of the same old problems, generic instrumental, corny love sick lyrics and mediocre singing
Juice world is clearly talented and at his best he has producers and features that can support him in a positive way and create fantastic songs. But far too often it sounds like some or all of the people involved are barely even trying and the result is an album far too long that leaves nothing on the cutting room floor and tries to talk you into sitting through bad song after bad song just for some highlights. If enough of the fat was trimmed from this album it would be decent, not great, but far too often each good track is surrounded by some generic and lifeless emo trap ballads. Juice WRLD is most certainly back on his bullshit, devil emoji. 4/10
For more trap music, check out my review of Lil Pump's Harverd Dropout here.
Death Race For Love is a longer project than I think many of us were comfortable with Juice releasing, so let me split my review into two halves. Firstly lets talk about the version of this album that I actually enjoy.
Empty is the opening song and a pretty good one that captures why people like Juice so much. Touchy and personal lyrics that are relatably sad and a passionate performance start the project off right with a solid tune. Hear Me Calling comes a little bit later in the project and is one of the sweetest tracks the album has to offer, the stripped back drums that support it make it a song that stands out in a project of samey repetition.
Robbery is a song that has grown on me, the exacerbated performance on the chorus from Juice is definitely one that has grown on me and I went from thinking it killed the song, to agreeing with his fans that it actually makes it. I didn't know going into the project but this version of Juice world is one I wish I heard a lot more, his voice stretching to its limit as he croons over these emo trap choruses is what helps set him apart from the crowd. Syphilis is an absolute BANGER, nothing else really needs to be said it's probably the hardest song on the album listen to it.
Who Shot Cupid? is one of the best and most unique instrumentals on the project but I wish Juice had brought something a little bit more interesting to it. Out My Way on the other hand follows the formula that this album stick way too tightly too, but this track actually does it pretty well and is one of the most fun songs here. ON GOD is one of my favorite songs here, Young Thug and Juice WRLD has fantastic chemistry together and Thugger's voice is a very refreshing one after nearly an hour of Juice. They bounce in and out of verses and hooks with and prove to be fantastic together the whole time, don't miss this track if you're a fan of either of the artists.
10 Feet and She's The One are the final two tracks I enjoyed. Both try less to be a generic trap beat and find a way to revel in their uniqueness towards the end of the project. Maze and Make Believe technically belong in this category ad they are generic but far from bad songs, just not standout moments.
For the second half of this review I'd like to talk about the version of Death Race For Love that I was absolutely dreading. The generic, repetitive and lifeless emo trap formula done to death over and over again. Demonz is a boring and totally skippable interlude that barely lasts a minute and a half but somehow feels too long. Fast is simply an underwritten tune, the verses sound improvised and the hook is so far from sticking, Flaws And Sins does this even worse as Juice's performance doesn't even seem to match the halfway finished instrumental this track has.
The Bees Knees is a decent song that is generic but listenable in its first half but during its five and a half minute runtime transitions into a completely unbearable second half. Speaking of completely unbearable now is probably where I should bring up some of the Xbox Live freestyle grade lyrics that show up on this album in its worst moments. Big and Feeling has completely awful lyrics and nothing else of substance to pay attention to making the corny and completely nonsensical bars even worse. I could pick out so many lyrics in these songs and others that are absolutely terrible but for the best example I will turn to the horribly titled HeMotions. This is an entire track that revolves around the refrain "Goin through motions, muddy emotions, back on my bullshit, devil emoji". *sigh*
Ring Ring is a cringe inducing callback to some of the most emotionally wrought emo rock of the 2000s that tries to work guitar into trap and just like every single other time anyone has tried it, it ends up terrible. Rider and Desire both ruin streaks of decent tunes and are two of the worst moments on the entire project. Rider is a straight up yikes worthy song with all the repetition of Gucci Gang without any of the banging instrumental of catchy hook to appeal. Desire features Juice singing at the absolute worst I've ever heard him and how somebody could possibly sit through this entire thing more than once is beyond me. Finally Won't Let Go is another example of the same old problems, generic instrumental, corny love sick lyrics and mediocre singing
Juice world is clearly talented and at his best he has producers and features that can support him in a positive way and create fantastic songs. But far too often it sounds like some or all of the people involved are barely even trying and the result is an album far too long that leaves nothing on the cutting room floor and tries to talk you into sitting through bad song after bad song just for some highlights. If enough of the fat was trimmed from this album it would be decent, not great, but far too often each good track is surrounded by some generic and lifeless emo trap ballads. Juice WRLD is most certainly back on his bullshit, devil emoji. 4/10
For more trap music, check out my review of Lil Pump's Harverd Dropout here.
