[rayword45]

Day 893: Montero by Lil Nas X

Y'know, there's something that just feels so... contradictory about this entire release to me, and I can't put my finger on it but it honestly makes the whole thing MORE appealing somehow. Like in a way, this feels like Lil Nas X is trying to legitimize his place as an "artist" and put out something that can make him respected as more than just the meme guy who made the cowboy song with Billy Ray Cyrus and Nine Inch Nails that they refused to classify as country until a white guy was singing on it. At the same time, somehow the entire vibe of this is incredibly corporate-dressed, perfectly pressed pop rap made specifically to target a young 13-25 crowd that dude probably didn't have that much creative control over, engineered to a tee. You also get the feeling that all of these features (Elton John? Really?) are here just to make a quick buck and maintain relevance through name association, yet none of their performances stick out as particularly bad.

Overall, two listens through and I enjoyed basically every second of this, and it might be irony-poisoning influencing me but shit, although Lil Nas X has more than a few corny bar I would totally go to a party right now where they played this album on loop.

Best Track: Scoop
Rating: 7.5/10