Reviews

Denzel Curry “Melt My Eyez See Your Future” Album Review

Melt My Eyez See Your Future

Denzel Curry

  • Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
  • Release Date: 2022-03-25
  • Explicitness: explicit
  • Track Count: 14
  • ℗ 2022 PH Recordings, LLC., Under exclusive license to Loma Vista Recordings.

‘Melt My Eyez See Your Future’ finds Curry enjoying his more chill moment, delivering reinvented, modern sounds – but still harking back to when hip-hop was all about straight bars in the ’90s.

Melt My Eyez See Your Future is a sprawling, ambitious record that makes good on Denzel Curry’s vision. He spent years working on Melt My Eyez, chasing different sounds and ideas, trying to will something special into existence. He’s succeeded.

This album finds Denzel Curry smashing through his central dichotomy and applying the balance of Medieval ninja. Bold, brash, and at times moving, the record feels unified in a way his projects have always reached while affording the rapper space to build ever outwards.

Curry has talked about being inspired by 21st-century rap-canon fixtures like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and To Pimp A Butterfly, and Melt My Eyez has some of that same conceptual or stylistic reach if it’s not as assured.

Curry works with jazz giants like Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins on the album, and even the album’s most conventional rap beats are still zonked-out and pointed inwards.

Album Cover Artwork

Denzel Curry &Quot;Melt My Eyez See Your Future&Quot; Album Review, Yours Truly, Reviews, March 28, 2024The photo finds a blurry picture of the profound rapper in a dull mix of colours. He is putting on something that would resemble a jacket, facing sideways, and showing you something you may have missed at your first glance or look. But, if you notice or look closely, you’d find that his ear is the only unblurred part of the image.

That said, in lieu of the album title, the “eyez” Curry refers to is his mind. From the wealth of a person’s mind, he utters speeches. And so, listening to the words and messages embedded in his music, more light is thrown on why he wants you to Melt his Eyez to See Your Future.

Tracks and Features

‘Melt My Eyez See Your Future is a fourteen-track project with eight feature tracks from a fine selection of artists with a range. We’re talking the likes of 6LACK; the OG autotune singer, T-Pain, rapper extraordinaire, JID, Robert Glasper, Buzzy Lee, Saul Williams, Bridget Perez, Rico Nasty, Jasiah, Karriem Riggings, 454, and slowthai.

NO Title Time
1 Melt Session #1 (feat. Robert Glasper) 4:01
2 Walkin 4:40
3 Worst Comes To Worst 2:50
4 John Wayne (feat. Buzzy Lee) 2:36
5 The Last 4:22
6 Mental (feat. Saul Williams & Bridget Perez) 2:26
7 Troubles (feat. T-Pain) 2:40
8 Ain’t No Way (feat. 6LACK, Rico Nasty, JID, Powers Pleasant & Jasiah) 4:24
9 X-Wing 2:56
10 Angelz (feat. Karriem Riggins ) 3:51
11 The Smell Of Death 1:20
12 Sanjuro (feat. 454) 2:07
13 Zatoichi 3:30
14 The Ills 3:22

Opening with the emphatic one-two of ‘Melt’ and ‘Walkin’, the introduction is a pulse-quickening, lung-filling experience, with Denzel sending the needle straight into the red. There’s a punk-like disregard for the rules at play here, whether that’s the cartoonish braggadocio of ‘John Wayne’ or the introspective elements on ‘Troubles’ – the project seems to relish portraying Denzel in his 360, contradictions and all.

The sonic palette is more expansive than ever, but there’s an evident kinship at work within the supporting cast. A record that finds room for Robert Glasper and Rico Nasty, Kenny Beats and JPEGMAFIA, ‘Melt My Eyez See Your Future’ feels like a dozen lightbulbs going off overhead – the shock of the detail renders it raw, with cuts like ‘X Wing’ or ‘Smell Of Death’ stepping far outside his previous boundaries.

At times, the record can be practically lawless. ‘Zatoichi’ features the inimitable slowthai, while the beat recalls jump-up drum ‘n’ bass at its muscular mid 90s peak – a head-spanning, spine-shattering experience, it’s set to conquer festivals on both sides of the Atlantic this summer.

Closing with ‘Illassusions’, the album is a breathless, breath-taking experience.

Album Theme

On this album, Curry has the ambition to chase an even bigger audience, which greatly influenced his choice of words in the lyrics of each track that cover topics such as racism, depression and gun violence. Curry raps in a raspy, energised voice, leavening the bleak subject matter with a relish for vocal performance.

Production Credits

The album’s production credits chiefly go to Kenny Beats, Thundercat, and JPEGMAFIA.

Stream

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