Hollywood's Bleeding - Post Malone: Review
is a Texas based hit-maker who has ridden fame off of his breakout single White Iverson into a complete dominance of popular music. With a number of high profile collaborations across his discography Post has certainly been one of the most influential figures in popular music the past few years and with two #1 singles and a potential mega hit collaboration with Young Thug all being released before this record dropped in full it is certain to be one of the years most commercially significant releases.
Review By Lavender:
Post Malone is an artist I am more than comfortable saying that I have never really enjoyed. His breakout tune still does nothing for me to this day and through his Stoney era he spawned some of the weakest and most uninspired singles and features of any mainstream artist around. He began a slight upswing on the bloated but bearable Beerbongs & Bentleys when he traded out flat out annoying for blissful background pop and trap that rarely made any impression good or bad. Songs like Rockstar and Psycho made for much better singles with improved features and there is even a track or two in the mix of albums songs that I enjoyed surprisingly enough. Despite this the album was way too long and every decent song had at least two that served no purpose and went nowhere, while Hollywood's Bleeding does make it a little bit easier to love its highlights, the weak spots are just as weak as ever before.
I think it's safe to say that I was worried about the release of this record in the lead up to it based on the singles. This era started off with Sunflower a track that was originally for the Into The Spiderverse soundtrack and I was surprised to see it land here for a couple reasons. For starters the songs hype had already comfortably died down by the time this album came out, and on top of this Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd absolutely handles Post on this track and is the center of all the songs highlights, making Post feel like a mediocre feature on his own album. I was also surprised to see Wow here, another song that has run its course already and I feel the same way about it now that I did when it came out. Despite some huge lyrical deficiencies the groove on the hook of this track just hits in the right way and I find it very catchy and consistently rewarding. Despite the fact that Post really should have gone a little harder on the song I still think it's decent.
The only single that I truly enjoyed from the era came in Goodbyes which has a very tight hook and a killer Young Thug verse as he continues to kill it everywhere he goes in 2019. The final single had me really worried as Circles is a terrible ballad that I can't believe Post's label actually let him put out. With dreadful singing and no progression whatsoever the song stumbles through it's absolutely unbearable runtime with no purpose and makes for one of the most taxing moments on an already rough passage within the record. But before we get to that let me talk about some of the songs I actually liked on this record.
Enemies is a just barely tolerable song with a painfully generic beat. Thankfully DaBaby has a feature on this song where he absolutely bodies Post and saves the song from the pit of generic pap it would have otherwise drowned in, Charlotte represent. Die For Me was one of the songs I was most worried about going into this because it featured Halsey and Future but it is actually one of the highlights here as they both put on good performances and Future in particular really gets to shine within the song. Take What You Want was the song I was really truly excited for and for good reason as Ozzy Osborne of all people features here and he absolutely kills the hook to this song which I just couldn't be happier about. Everything about this track is better than most of what else is here with a punchy instrumental and even a very good Travis Scott feature at the tail end of the track all of which meld together really well.
I'm Gonna Be is a song that sounds like something the Black Eyed Peas would have done in 2004 on snap judgement but it actually has some redeeming features and Post has some good lyrics that are a part of an overall cute performance. Myself is another song that surprised me with how genuinely lovely and emotional it is. The melodies are killer and the production is just perfectly sunny and the whole song makes for a bright and cute moment on the album that really needed it in it's second half.
Unfortunately on top of the tracks I've already complained about there are many more rough cuts. The title track and opener Hollywood's Bleeding is two parts of underwhelming songwriting, starting with a cheap and overproduced slow burner with some awful lyrics and transitioning into a slick trap tune that is badly generic. Saint-Tropez is its own issue entirely with some absolutely disastrous lyrics delivered in the awful choppy broken up flow that couldn't possibly be less catchy. The chorus is a complete dud which makes this probably the worst song on the entire album. If you ever wondered what it would sound like if Imagine Dragons tried to make a song with the instrumental from The Weeknd's False Alarm then check out the track Allergic but if that sounds terrible to you then do the right thing and avoid it.
A Thousand Bad Times starts off sounding like it could be really good but gets so cheap and corny so quickly that it's basically unbearable. On The Road actually features two decent verses one from Post himself and one standout verse from Meek Mill. Unfortunately it features another one of the albums worst hook as well as its worst feature where Lil Baby does an unbearably bad Young Thug impression and completely ruins the entire second half of the song. Staring At The Sun is one of the more disappointing cuts as it features SZA and I'm always excited for new SZA music. Unfortunately the track is hot garbage and the foundation is so rotten that not even SZA can save it with a decent performance that gets badly misused and some terrible refrains that makes their otherwise decent harmonizing into a monotonous mess.
Review By Lavender:
Post Malone is an artist I am more than comfortable saying that I have never really enjoyed. His breakout tune still does nothing for me to this day and through his Stoney era he spawned some of the weakest and most uninspired singles and features of any mainstream artist around. He began a slight upswing on the bloated but bearable Beerbongs & Bentleys when he traded out flat out annoying for blissful background pop and trap that rarely made any impression good or bad. Songs like Rockstar and Psycho made for much better singles with improved features and there is even a track or two in the mix of albums songs that I enjoyed surprisingly enough. Despite this the album was way too long and every decent song had at least two that served no purpose and went nowhere, while Hollywood's Bleeding does make it a little bit easier to love its highlights, the weak spots are just as weak as ever before.
I think it's safe to say that I was worried about the release of this record in the lead up to it based on the singles. This era started off with Sunflower a track that was originally for the Into The Spiderverse soundtrack and I was surprised to see it land here for a couple reasons. For starters the songs hype had already comfortably died down by the time this album came out, and on top of this Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd absolutely handles Post on this track and is the center of all the songs highlights, making Post feel like a mediocre feature on his own album. I was also surprised to see Wow here, another song that has run its course already and I feel the same way about it now that I did when it came out. Despite some huge lyrical deficiencies the groove on the hook of this track just hits in the right way and I find it very catchy and consistently rewarding. Despite the fact that Post really should have gone a little harder on the song I still think it's decent.
The only single that I truly enjoyed from the era came in Goodbyes which has a very tight hook and a killer Young Thug verse as he continues to kill it everywhere he goes in 2019. The final single had me really worried as Circles is a terrible ballad that I can't believe Post's label actually let him put out. With dreadful singing and no progression whatsoever the song stumbles through it's absolutely unbearable runtime with no purpose and makes for one of the most taxing moments on an already rough passage within the record. But before we get to that let me talk about some of the songs I actually liked on this record.
Enemies is a just barely tolerable song with a painfully generic beat. Thankfully DaBaby has a feature on this song where he absolutely bodies Post and saves the song from the pit of generic pap it would have otherwise drowned in, Charlotte represent. Die For Me was one of the songs I was most worried about going into this because it featured Halsey and Future but it is actually one of the highlights here as they both put on good performances and Future in particular really gets to shine within the song. Take What You Want was the song I was really truly excited for and for good reason as Ozzy Osborne of all people features here and he absolutely kills the hook to this song which I just couldn't be happier about. Everything about this track is better than most of what else is here with a punchy instrumental and even a very good Travis Scott feature at the tail end of the track all of which meld together really well.
I'm Gonna Be is a song that sounds like something the Black Eyed Peas would have done in 2004 on snap judgement but it actually has some redeeming features and Post has some good lyrics that are a part of an overall cute performance. Myself is another song that surprised me with how genuinely lovely and emotional it is. The melodies are killer and the production is just perfectly sunny and the whole song makes for a bright and cute moment on the album that really needed it in it's second half.
Unfortunately on top of the tracks I've already complained about there are many more rough cuts. The title track and opener Hollywood's Bleeding is two parts of underwhelming songwriting, starting with a cheap and overproduced slow burner with some awful lyrics and transitioning into a slick trap tune that is badly generic. Saint-Tropez is its own issue entirely with some absolutely disastrous lyrics delivered in the awful choppy broken up flow that couldn't possibly be less catchy. The chorus is a complete dud which makes this probably the worst song on the entire album. If you ever wondered what it would sound like if Imagine Dragons tried to make a song with the instrumental from The Weeknd's False Alarm then check out the track Allergic but if that sounds terrible to you then do the right thing and avoid it.
A Thousand Bad Times starts off sounding like it could be really good but gets so cheap and corny so quickly that it's basically unbearable. On The Road actually features two decent verses one from Post himself and one standout verse from Meek Mill. Unfortunately it features another one of the albums worst hook as well as its worst feature where Lil Baby does an unbearably bad Young Thug impression and completely ruins the entire second half of the song. Staring At The Sun is one of the more disappointing cuts as it features SZA and I'm always excited for new SZA music. Unfortunately the track is hot garbage and the foundation is so rotten that not even SZA can save it with a decent performance that gets badly misused and some terrible refrains that makes their otherwise decent harmonizing into a monotonous mess.
Internet is a weird track that's a super expansive ballad with orchestral instrumentation that shoots for a very grand sound but falls so far short in its theme. Post says nothing that amounts to anything on this song and the grand point of the track is just to get off Instagram which sours one of the albums more interesting moments sonically. I Know is another track that has some good moments but it just a little bit too glossy for me and the pop rock vibes Post is shooting for just sound so fake when they are so overproduced.
Once again on Hollywood's Bleeding Post has proven to be a prolific hitmaker, and not much else. As songs with big names will likely get a ton of radio play most of the album is made up by generic and overproduced songs that desperately needed more quality control in the lyrics and hooks specifically. While there are moments on the album I liked and will return to for the most part this is yet another example of why Post is one of the premiere singles artists of the modern pop landscape, and why it will likely stay that way for a long time. 4/10
Once again on Hollywood's Bleeding Post has proven to be a prolific hitmaker, and not much else. As songs with big names will likely get a ton of radio play most of the album is made up by generic and overproduced songs that desperately needed more quality control in the lyrics and hooks specifically. While there are moments on the album I liked and will return to for the most part this is yet another example of why Post is one of the premiere singles artists of the modern pop landscape, and why it will likely stay that way for a long time. 4/10
For more pop rap check out my review of Young Thug's So Much Fun here
