Rapid Fire Reviews: Catching Up Commercially with Bad Bunny, Doja Cat, and Mitski

nadie sabe lo que va a pasar manana - Bad Bunny

In case you somehow don't know, Bad Bunny is one of the biggest musical stars on earth. With his 2022 album Un Verano Sin Ti he dropped not only some of his best material yet, but some of his biggest. In the aftermath of the album's smash success both commercially and critically he became one of the most prominent figures in international music. That's why I was pretty surprised when he turned around barely more than a year later with another substantial helping of new material. One of the reservations I had about Un Verano was that it ran for a full 80 minutes and had ideas that absolutely felt like retreads of each other. But Bad Bunny's new album nadie sabe lo que va a pasar manana is exactly as long, much less sonically adventurous, and lacking in the high points of its predecessor. 

The album is a dive headfirst into trap flavors and it really isn't all that bad. WHERE SHE GOES was an early single that I liked when I first heard it and I still enjoyed every time it popped up on the album. Occasionally it gets pretty creative in its trap sylings. TELEFONO NUEVO is one of the most interesting cuts here with slick flows and a bouncy trap beat in the first half that gets quickly cut off and replaced with something darker and more intense. Speaking of more intense BATICANO might be the hardest-hitting point on the record and its combination of thumping beats and hooky refrains won me over quickly. Though the album does badly crave some variety, it gets off to a decent start. NADIE SABE is an ambitious and multi-faceted opening track which spans a full 6 minutes. It's vastly superior to the other nearly 6-minute cut the album has to offer. That leads into MONACO which has become a bit of a breakout hit for the record and it's very easy to see why. The song is utterly infectious and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it sticks around. 

But for each track I like there is another that's a more monotonous version of it. The samey sonic presentation of the record throughout is one of the biggest challenges of conquering its full 80 minutes of music. Another challenge is the roster of guests. Bad Bunny is no stranger to collaborations but on this album in particular they are really all over the place. That spottiness makes the record a difficult hill to climb, even if there are moments where he hits his stride along the way. 5/10

Scarlet - Doja Cat

There was plenty of intrigue involved going into Scarlet before I could even press play. While Doja Cat's fanbase is a bit too rabid for her to develop a reputation as a "singles artist" that's exactly how I've viewed her for years. She is clearly talented and versatile enough to emerge regularly drop some of my favorite singles of the past few years. That was the case once again with Paint The Town Red, one of the best hit songs I've heard all year. Even the album's other singles Attention and Demons didn't click quite as well but I still think they're solid tracks. That curiosity extended to Agora Hills which has become the breakout post-album hit single and is one of the most curious and interesting tracks Doja has ever released. But while the era will be defined by its strong and successful collection of singles, the album was always going to be defined by the deep cuts. 

One thing Scarlet manages to thankfully avoid from its predecessor are the supremely garish and obnoxious moments. While at a glance the tracklist has some seemingly evocative moments, it's usually just a display of Doja's personality with a sonic presentation that stays familiar even when it wanders from routine. The bigger problem for the album is that it's underwritten. I don't mean that from a lyrical standpoint, because Doja really does continue to be a force of personality on a lot of these tracks. But the composition and presentation of many of these songs feel closer to interludes than I would have hoped. That may work to give the album a more impressionistic feel, but Solange she is not, and the record still deals firmly in pop rap in a way that causes duds like Gun and Love Life to disrupt the flow quite a bit. Some of the diatribes I really do appreciate. Often is a sensual song that likes of which I wasn't really sure Doja had in her without going overly cutesy. 97 is a track that grew on me every single time with its hooky refrains throughout. While I do have some issues with the album obviously, this might be my favorite of Doja's full-length projects to date. It doesn't really ever come together into something greater than the sum of its parts but she's definitely cleaned up some of the issues I had with the album's predecessor. Though I can't exactly predict Doja becoming the kind of high-brow album-oriented pop star some of her peers are, I'm just appreciating the enjoyment I was surprised to get out of Scarlet. 6.5/10

The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We - Mitski

Given the way Mitski tends to disappear for extended periods of time I felt confident I wouldn't have to cover her again this soon. Whenever I give her music a fair shake and talk about how it usually amounts to something that is frankly average, her fans tend to come at me. Because that's how her entire discography up to this point has come off to me I made the assumption, perhaps unfairly, that this album would operate similarly. She led off the era with lead single and eventual opening track Bug Like An Angel. While I wasn't initially head over heels for the song I always felt something coming off of it that took me more time to unpack. Ultimately, I realized that the song deploys restraint in a way that I'm just not used to from Mitski particularly on the background instrumentation and the vocals. The results are a subtlety that I've often criticized her music for lacking with its sledgehammer blunt conclusion. The third single My Love Mine All Mine is shockingly making its climb up the Hot 100 right now as a result of massive TikTok popularity. In parts, it does feel like a Mitski love song that comes with the box but I can't complain too much about it when the simple presentation and sentiment feel refreshing especially within the tracklist of the album.

That contextual shift of the singles resulted in more of a sonic shift than I was anticipating on the album proper. The Land deploys much more folk and americana influence than I was anticipating hearing from a new Mitski album. Unfortunately, this sounds exactly as much like Mitski wearing a cowboy Halloween costume as you'd expect. Even as a peddle steel-led string arrangement dusts the instrumental of a song like Heaven, Mitski's lyricism and conceptualizing still feel like they belong over a Billie Eilish instrumental circa 2019. The Urban Outfitters-core approach to songwriting isn't the worst thing in the world and I've even been known to stand up for it in the past. But the way she deploys it here feels like even weaker folk cosplay than we got from some of the cringiest Boygenius songs earlier this year. An entirely different dichotomy is on display at points in the middle of the album. The impressive restraint returns on one of my favorite deep cuts on the record the wonderful The Deal. Unfortunately, the album makes sure to immediately counteract that with one of the most theater-core things I've ever heard Mitski make When Memories Snow. That's sort of just the dance you get with this album. Every bit of simple and pristine songwriting played eloquently and patiently is succeeded by something much bulkier, more garish, or overwrought. The results are an even more mixed bag than usual for Mitski, without some of the occasional high points I've become accustomed to from her. 5.5/10