What a big miss.

Metro Boomin saved no one in his new “HEROES & VILLAINS” album.

This first time listening will double as being the last. To sum up now, it is an album filled with songs that all are mediocre sounding and have no purpose to be played at all.

This album doesn’t have enough energy for a party or to sing along to, but is still rap and isn’t chill or a calm listen either. It’s in the worst gray area ever.

Metro Boomin never has hits and popularity all by himself. All of his greatest hits are collaborations, although are argued to be the best type of songs. However, they sometimes have to be an artist’s best type of songs when they can’t produce anything worthwhile on their own. For Metro Boomin, the majority of his top songs listed on Spotify are with other artists including Offset, Gunna, and 21 Savage.

Aside from the overwhelming disappointment served by Metro Boomin there were some, but few, good songs. Although, the over done and typically “Rap Caviar” sounding songs were difficult to get through.

To point out a special few, “Too Many Nights” and “Walk ‘Em Down” should not be listened to with headphones or on the radio because of the deafening fuzzy siren in the background. Or “Superhero” that did not have any dynamics or vibe shift throughout the whole song.

The lack of intelligence was really highlighted in this album. This is so embarrassing for all artists in the rap game. Or maybe that’s the point. Maybe this is the type of music that is booming for 14 year old boys. Who knows (probably Metro Boomin’s production team).

Each song sounded the same with the mediocre music with lyrics that do not match the beat. Although different influences were shown throughout the album like soul from John Legend, chill vibes with The Weeknd, Gunna’s classic sounding music, and Travis Scott’s technique of layering beats.

The album almost works too well together considering most of the songs sounded the same. This album lacked uniqueness. What this album needed was more women influence. The contrasting vocals, lyrics, and energies would have filled a lot of the empty space that created the boring vibe.

The one quality of sound ruined the, assumed, hard work that was put into the album. There needed to be more dynamics in the vocals, rhythms, harmonies/melodies.

The rap genre must be exhausted from the ad libs that are curse words and add no importance to the song. 21 Savage’s classic ad libs are getting boring and repetitive, especially in “Umbrella,” which totally disrespect Rihanna’s infamous hit with Jay-Z.

Most of the songs highlighted in “HEROES & VILLAINS” all sound the same, have meaningless lyrics, horrible beats, and nauseating ad libs. The only assumption to make is that the listeners of this album will be middle school boys who want to seem cooler than they are.

“HEROES & VILLAINS” offers nothing special to the rap game. The “Rap Caviar” playlist on Spotify might love it, but true rap listeners should know that “HEROES & VILLAINS” disappointed the genre’s fans.

Rating: 3/10

Reviewer’s Favorite Songs: “On Time,” “Niagara Falls,” “Feel the Fiyaaaah”
Reviewer’s Least Favorite Songs: The rest of them

Natalie Simone is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email nvs5790@psu.edu.