It Is What It Is - Thundercat: Review
is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter who is well known for his unique style of bass playing. He has appeared on songs with artists like Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott and Childish Gambino but is most well known for his attachment for Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder Records and his numerous collaborations with FlyLo. It Is What It Is is the 5th record from Thundercat and his 2nd since his big breakout singles.
Review By Lavender:
Thundercat is one of my favorite musical personalities. He's great on Twitter and has released a number of awesome singles over the years, not to mention excellent contributions to fantastic hip hop records over the past 5 years or so. The only issue I have with his music is that I haven't loved a single one of his records yet. They all carry some pretty similar issues starting with tons of short and meaningless interludes that round out already stark tracklists, as well as production that often falls on the dryer side and hurts his songs more than it helps them. If you've heard It Is What It Is then you already know that those two qualities are two of the records defining features.
The record technically had 5 singles and the tracks are among the better on the record. The only true dud of the bunch is a track that is over a year and a half old at this point and I was very surprised to see on the record, King Of The Hill. I was excited for the song initially seeing as it was a combination of FlyLo and Thundercat's sound with instrumental input from BADBADNOTGOOD, but the pairing is pretty poorly combined. The instrumental totally overpowers Thundercat's sung vocals but neither of them really bring it in the first place.
It got better from there though as all the recent singles had at least something to like about them. Black Qualls was the next single and while I enjoyed the single version the album release of the song includes a Childish Gambino verse that heightens it even further. The track has a tight ass funky bass riff that grabs me from the very start of the song, Thundercat and Steven Lacy sounds straight out of Funkadelic with their beautiful vocal harmonies and untouchable swagger. The track's themes of reluctance to technology are perfectly summed up in the Gambino verse that makes it an even better experience on the record. Dragonball Durag is basically exactly what Thundercat has done well for his entire career synthesized down into one song. He brings a hilarious personality to the track paired with his sweet high pitched vocals and a fat bass riff for basically the Thundercat formula.
Fair Chance is a song dedicated to Mac Miller that goes off almost without a hitch. The first half of the song is wonderful and combines a great hook from Thundercat with an absolutely beautiful verse from Ty Dolla $ign. The song hits a snag however with a really weird Lil B feature where he tries to match Ty's performance style but he clearly isn't capable of it and the result is a really awkward and I'm honestly not sure why is was included. Finally just before the record came out its first real track in the tracklist was released with Interstellar Love. The horns are really interesting and the song winds and evolves into a jazz centric Kamasi Washington style track that I really enjoy.
Like I said in the introduction to the review there are plenty of short tracks here and almost none of them are gratifying. Even the more substantial tracks that dig into being full songs are pretty disappointing. Funny Thing is a loose two minute track with a messy instrumental and Overseas reminds me of all my least favorite songs on Drunk and that's before the cringey Zach Fox feature comes on. I Love Louis Cole is a decently well written song but the lo-fi aesthetic holds it back big time as the drums just do not pop anywhere near how much they should and Thundercat's vocals aren't clearly mixed enough to actually get the sweetness of his performance through. The title track is also the closing track and the longest one on the record but it doesn't use that length in an effective way. There are parts I like including the big instrumental passage in the second half that all but closes the song and record off, but getting there is a bit of a mess.
There are also a handful of tracks I did enjoy beyond the singles, Miguel's Happy Dance has an instrumental that is unmistakably Flying Lotus and I could see the song coming right off his record Flamagra from last year. The way his vocals flutter over the synths is a real treat. Finally Unrequited Love gets off to a slow start but improves big time as it goes on hitting a particularly sweet note in the second half when the bassline is matched with a punchy rhythm that is also classic FlyLo.
It Is What It Is is obviously not a total loss but I have most of the exact same problems with the record that I have always had with Thundercat's albums. When his personality shines through and the lowkey production of the record doesn't get in the way of the tracks they shine is cool ways that he has always been capable of. It is looking more and more like we will never quite get the record that sees Thundercat living up to his fullest potential, but each time he comes around and drops a record it has enough worthwhile material to warrant paying attention to. 6/10
