Reviews

Lil Yachty “Let’s Start Here.” Album Review

Let’s Start Here.

Lil Yachty

  • Genre: Alternative
  • Date: 27 Jan, 2023
  • Content: explicit
  • Region: NGA
  • Track(s): 14
  • Quality Control Music/Motown Records; ℗ 2023 Quality Control Music, LLC, under exclusive license to UMG Recordings, Inc.

“Let’s Start Here” is a fantastic album when judged just on its merits as an album. It’s captivating, convincing, innovative, and solid. However, for as large of a departure as this represents, it is almost equally impressive that his autotuned singing can consistently be recognized in the music, even in this unfamiliar setting. Even when he isn’t singing, Yachty is clearly present in “Let’s Start Here,” and his decision to put quality above quantity is one that many hip-hop musicians from his generation might imitate. More psychedelic rock than trap hip-hop, “Let’s Start Here” is an excellent album. It’s less safe, riskier, less fashionable, and more retro-sounding, a step above the basic.

Album Cover Art

Lil Yachty &Quot;Let'S Start Here.&Quot; Album Review, Yours Truly, Reviews, March 28, 2024

The fascinating artwork chosen by Yachty for this album shows a number of animated men and a woman dressed corporately like company execs that appear to be in very high spirits as they gather around the woman in the white suit for a picture. Some trippy stuff.

Tracks and Features

Yachty sings about his inner self and compares himself to the titular Native American-Africans group of the Seminole people over a Jimi Hendrix/Pink Floyd-inspired psychedelic rock instrumental in “the BLACK Seminole,” which pretty much sets the tone for what’s to come. Teezo Touchdown and Yachty take a more neo-soul direction in “the ride,” where they sing about needing the special women in their lives by their sides. To properly appreciate the song’s surreal, clever, utopian, Homeboys in Outer Space-esque experience, you will need 3D glasses. It contains both romantic and cunningly sly moments.

Before Foushée joins in on the evocative “pRETTy,” where she sings about dying the pussy, “running out of time” has a more summery tone, addressing a romance already pretty much run its course at this point. The song “WE SAW THE SUN!” has a bit of a Tame Impala influence sonically, singing about how shit doesn’t get better and to take pictures for proof after the “:(failure(:” interlude in “THE ZONE~” admits that Yachty feels at home up until he’s by himself lonely.

Justine Syke counters this by telling Yachty she never meant to make him feel alone and asking if he’d put anyone else above her. With Diane Gordon, Yachty performs the duet “drive ME crazy!” in which they declare their love for one another. During the second verse, Yachty cleverly alludes to Kanye West’s “Jesus Lord.” The otherworldly experience “IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!” describes a horrible drug trip over an epic guitar riff. In contrast to “paint THE sky,” which has a more art pop feel, “sAy sOMETHINg” has a more laid-back mood while instrumentally living the dream and recalling the experience of being a teenager.

While the penultimate track, “The Alchemist,” sings about living a good life over some warm rock production, the song “shouLd I B?” treads the psychedelic pop waters, admitting that he needs to do right by his lover and that he ain’t mad at what she did even though he’s unsure of whether he should be. Finally, in the six-minute neo-psychedelic grand finale, “REACH THE SUNSHINE.” starring Daniel Caesar, they discuss filling an emptiness.

Album Theme

You’re probably left wondering what he means by the title, “Let’s Start Here.” It might be entirely personal. If that’s the case, it’s more than simply a fantastic fresh start in a career that was starting to stagnate. But, on the other hand, if the beginning Yachty is referring to is broader in scope, the album is as bold a declaration of purpose as he could have made.

 Tracklist

NO

TITLE

TIME

1 the BLACK seminole. 6:51
2 the ride- 3:10
3 running out of time 4:29
4 pRETTy 2:42
5 :(failure(: 2:47
6 THE zone~ 4:09
7 WE SAW THE SUN! 5:31
8 drive ME crazy! 3:49
9 IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!! 5:22
10 sAy sOMETHINg 3:32
11 paint THE sky 3:05
12 sHouLd i B? 2:48
13 The Alchemist. 2:56
14 REACH THE SUNSHINE. 5:58

Production Credits

Anthony Lopez, Jacob Portrait, Jam City, Justin Raisen, Khaya Cohen, Lil Yachty, Magdalena Bay, Miles B.A. Robinson, Nick Hakim, Patrick Wimberly & Sad Pony worked on the album’s production.

Stream

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