WIXQ DJ's Recommended Music

Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red

Posted: 8/16/2021 by Sam Bailey ( See All) Show:
(2020) Some albums can be described as challenging on a technical standpoint, or just for how long of a runtime you have to sit through (looking at you, Swans), but this is a different kind of challenging; It's challenging because, if it was a person, it would beat you up and take your lunch money. Carti's blisteringly fast 24-song album has a runtime of an hour and change, yet it feels like a brisk trip through the last few years of music summarized in an over-exaggerated package. This is not a tasteful gallery of modern hyperpop-rap-screaming songs, no, this is a dirty underground venue where you can't find one place to stand that doesn't feel claustrophobic. This is due in part to Carti's impeccable sense of pacing on this album, pacing that's so perfect that it feels like a setlist in itself, pacing that doesn't even feel like it was ruminated over, it's just so natural and makes so much sense when you listen to it, but not in a traditional way at all. If you've been following Carti or his fanbase at all this album cycle, the consensus is that Carti has always leaned to the side of keeping punk sensibilities alive in his music, fashion, and PR style. This is evident in the presentation of this album, in all its crimson text and black backgrounds on the cover, to the vinyl edition (thanks Tom, the best record store owner around!!) having the most basic packaging and a lack of a tracklist on the record labels. Carti releases snippets and singles, yes, but this is an EXPERIENCE. Carti wants you to sit down and hear this together as one set, even though most of your time listening to this will not be spent sitting down. In fact, most of my time listening to this was spent jumping around my room and yelling the words to the middle bit of "Stop Breathing". Maybe it's just quarantine and Covid-19 anxiety getting to me, but if this is what concerts were like before the pandemic, you can sign me up once things are safe again. The album mellows out towards the end, which reminds me of a few "Die Lit" tracks, but it's the perfect ending to such a devastatingly harsh first half. Overall, this is a good album, it takes some getting used to, and you will absolutely make fun of Carti's ad-libs on "Teen X" and the sample on "Vamp Anthem" until you catch yourself doing the vocals along with him and humming "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" absentmindedly. It's a simple way to get you to like the music, but it absolutely works, and the formula is never strayed from throughout the course of the album. It just works. Rock isn't dead, because somehow this SoundCloud rapper gone punk fashion icon is keeping it alive on this album.

Recommended If You Like: Punk sensibilities, SoundCloud rap, hyperpop, really heavy bass
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