Ventura - Anderson .Paak: Review

Anderson .Paak

is a multi-talented rapper and singer who has been thrust into the limelight in recent years following a series of critically acclaimed releases that helped the rapper build up a committed fanbase and score multiple crossover hits. 

Review By Lavender:

.Paak continues to surprise me. A few years after it came out I revisited his first album Venice and while it was clearly not the project its follow-up was, I was shocked to find out just how good it was and that I hadn't heard it at the time. But after hearing Paak's excellent guest spots on Dr. Dre's Compton and listening to his excellent 2016 project Malibu I was already hooked on the multi-talented artist. Paak had a very memorable collaboration with Knxwledge as NxWorries on the album Yes Lawd! and then took 2017 off of studio work for the most part in order to watch and wait as his fantastic music became more and more popular each day. 2018 was a busy year for Paak as early on he dropped the killer single Bubblin to universal acclaim, and a spot on my singles of the year list. All before releasing his third album Oxnard with production from Dr Dre and a myriad of fantastic features from artists like Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar. Oxnard was a good album that I gave a good review to but even in the half a year since its release I've come around even more to this project and songs that just seemed okay find their way back into my head time and time again. Coupling this with the two incredible singles Paak dropped for Ventura gave my sky high expectations for the project and thankfully, it delivered. 

Let's talk about those singles because they are both absolutely brilliant. Starting with King James which may be my favorite song on this entire album. The instrumental is killer from its smooth strings and percussion to the literal bells and whistles sewn in throughout it. .Paak kills his verses bringing not only a fantastic flow and a lovable animated performance, but also some of the sharpest and most socially conscious lyrics we've ever heard from him. It's great from top to bottom and as a lead single it's hard to imagine getting a project cycle off to a better start. He followed this up with a gorgeous companion single, the Smokey Robinson featuring Make It Better. The song is slower but incredibly smooth, Paak brings some sensual and buttery singing over a fantastic soul inspired instrumental. 

So given how great the singles are it's no surprise that there are some more fantastic moments across this album. The opener Come Home has some killer percussion that helps set the tone for some of the gorgeous mixing put on across this project, the instrumentation is consistently supportive rather than distracting from how great Paak performs. Oh yeah and in case you could somehow forget, Andre 3000 is on this song and gives a killer verse at the tail end of the song that kicks up in the second half as instrumental takes on for one of the best moments Ventura has to offer, Reachin' 2 Muhc is a great big band style instrumental piece with some more hefty drums and while I have some issues with the way the vocals are mixed in the first half of the track, when it transitions into its second half there is no denying how fantastic Paak's personal and intimate performance is. 

Winners Circle is another fantastic track with some killer bass work that makes Paak's flow at the start of the song incredibly infectious right from the start. It has a killer chorus and some sugary sweet backing vocals that make it a fantastic complete experience. Jet Black is a textbook example of great vocals as both Paak's excellent performance and the killer harmonizing turn one of the more basic instrumentals into another one of the best songs, once you've arrived at the brilliant outro to the song it'll be hard to forget just how talented Paak is as a songwriter. Finally What Can We Do? is a brilliant outro that starts off a touch slow but features some gorgeous Nate Dogg vocals, likely courtesy of Dr. Dre. The song is one of the best moments bottom to top and the care that went into this track should be the baseline for interpreting artists music after they've died. On its own its one of the best tracks here but given the context it's both an emotional catharsis and a grand finale to this fantastic album. 

For some moments I think are good, but I'm not head over heels for see songs like Good Heels. It's a slow cut with a detailed instrumental that is very sweet but the actual tune itself is one of the more forgettable moments and as just a minute and a half it seems like Paak knew that as the song doesn't overstay its welcome. Yada Yada sounds like something straight off of Malibu so with its simple instrumental and exciting vocal performance it is clear that Paak is evolving as an artist and very much holding on to everything he learns. 

Despite how much I enjoy this album there are two tracks that don't fully hold their weight. Chosen One is simply a wander that has some boring moments in its very loose structure. It has some cool strings introduced to what is a solid overall instrumental but doesn't really hold its own against the other songs here. Twilight is the opposite as this is one of the most compelling moments for Paak in his performance and songwriting. He gets into his raspiest and most heavily straining moments in what is a dramatic and tight performance. Unfortunately the instrumental here just doesn't stick out in the same way and it either fades out of the tune completely or serves as a distraction from what is going on with Paak, it's the only song here that clashes in a negative way. 

Given that some of its weakest moments are songs I still enjoy revisiting and that its highlights have already been some of the best of 2019 so far it should be crystal clear that Ventura is one of the best projects released so far this year and is comfortably good enough to expect a place towards the top of my year end charts. 9/10 

Favorite Song: King James