The posthumous album “Legends never Die” from Juice WRLD is aptly named. For someone of his talent and where the trajectory of his career was going, just like Pop Smoke I don’t see him musically going away any time soon. I will say that this album is a little hard for me personally to listen to. Knowing the situation and story behind his passing, the sound and content of this album is a little much. The sad lyrical content coupled with him speaking about trying to escape from the pain with drugs and pills is a difficult listen. That being said this project sounds amazing and so does him. “5 or 6 pills in my right hand, codeine runth over on my nightstand, taking medicine to fix all of the damage, my anxiety the size of a planet….I’m in too deep, we’re drowning.”
The beat and track choice on this entire project is perfect for him as an artist. His vocals are a mix between the new age style of rap and rock. Knowing that hip-hop has original roots from the rock genre this makes sense, but thinking of where hip-hop is now you would think that this might not sound like it would be a good combination. However, I am letting you know Juice WRLD makes this combination work perfectly. The guitar laced and driven tracks are the perfect choice for this vocal style and his artistry.
As a posthumous album I understand why it is a longer 21 song project, however, for me this a little too long. Don’t get me wrong the album sounds great sonically, but at the same time it is a lot of the same sound, and for 21 songs it can get a little lengthy. Through the first third of the album for me there is only one skip. The intro is a great way to start the album and followed by the next five songs are a good start. Again the lyrical content is hard to listen to (at least for me knowing his story) but for me it was a good five song start.
Having only four songs with features comes as a little surprise. Not fully knowing how much of this album was completed before his passing, I would expect more features on a posthumous album as a way to complete and fill out song ideas that he may not have been able to fully finish. However, knowing how artists work and how much they record today, it does make sense that he would have enough of a back log of songs that could be finished with post production and ready to be released.
“Life’s a Mess” is a great start to the second part of the album. Featuring Halsey, speaking about finding a person to compliment you while saying that, “I get high when life gets low” these two together sound good. I would have like to hear Halsey have a bigger presence on the song, more than just a few backgrounds and a bridge to close out the song, as I think she could have added a lot more to this song, still it is a good sounding song.
The Marshmello feature on the following song, “Come & Go” is a mix of good and bad. The verses are good and show his more rock-pop style, a style and lane Juice WRLD sounds great in. However, the bridge and hook where you can clearly hear the Marshmello influence I could have done without. That being said, when this song gets played at a festival (whenever that is allowed to happen again) the crowd is going to go crazy when he drops the hook. It is clear that this was the intention of this track, but for me it is a deference due to how different this song sounds from the rest of the album.
“Wishing Well” is the epitome of someone screaming out for help. Having an entire song speaking about trying to escape, “Drugs killing me softly…sometimes I don’t know how to feel…if it wasn’t for the pills I wouldn’t be here…but if I keep taking these pills I won’t be here.” “This is the part where I tell you I’m fine but I’m lying I just don’t want you to worry, this is the part where I take all of my feelings and hide them cause I don’t want nobody to hurt me, I can’t breath I am waiting for the exhale.” These lyrics are eery and incredibly difficult to listen to. Over the recent years we have heard more and more artists release dark, sad, depressing songs and lyrics but to have an artist (especially one that has passed due to drugs) have songs in this vein and with such explicit lyrics talking about this topic is difficult.
The latter part of this album is seeming to be a cry for help. Topics of increased and excessive drug use. People not being surprised at the drug use. Trying to escape pain and demons while living in a hell type of environment as he explains. All of this while speaking with the understanding that the drugs he is taking aren’t great for his health, but without them he doesn’t know if he would be able to function. Honestly, as someone who has dealt with similar situation and feeling, along with what I have said through out this article about knowing the story behind his untimely passing, the last half of the album is almost impossible to listen to. Apart from all of that, I will saying the latter part of this album has a few songs that, to me, are skippable, but mostly because of what I stated at the top of this article, being that a 21 song album of the same sounding type of songs can get long winded.
This entire album sounds great. The tracks he chose (or that the executive producers choice, even though this album does sound like one that he recorded the songs to, and was not put together by the label just for the sake of releasing a Juice WRLD album) are perfect for him, his sound and his voice. His vocals sound great on every track and the sound he has and was processing with was one that was going to take him far. Similar to Post Malone, this rock-rap-sing style of music works for him.
For fans of Juice WRLD this is an album that they will continually flock to over and over again, and will probably have on repeat for months. For radio there are going to be multiple songs that we are going to hear multiple times over the next few months. I will let you know now, if you are someone who listens to radio often, be ready to hear a lot of Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD for the rest of this summer. This is a well constructed album. Personally there are a few skippable songs but not many. There are a handful of songs that I could listen again but due to the content I don’t know if I would be reaching to go back to this album or any songs in particular a ton.
Overall this is a good album. For me the lyrical content is a little much, and with almost every song of the 21 being in the same vein content wise, it is going to be hard to listen to some of these songs again. This is one of those albums that will put you in the head space of where he was and what he is talking about. This is an album that when you are sad and depressed you put on to be in your feelings. Where this could be a bad thing, I don’t see the majority of his fan base having this issue. The ones that do I implore you to be careful when listening to this album as the effects it could have mentally and emotionally could not necessarily be the effects you want.
A great album, but defiantly one listeners have to be careful listening to.
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