Vital Status: Alive & Stable😴
Fav Tracks: 45 SMOKE, MAZZA, VEX, i tried, push, feel away, adhd
Least Fav: PLAY WITH FIRE
Slowthai is now embarking on his sophomore LP with Tyron. Following up his incredible debut album Nothing Great About Britain that showed us the harsh, gritty, political, and unapologetic version of himself, we now get a more introspective look into who Slowthai truly is. At 35 minutes in runtime there is a lot packed into this album.
Side-note: Nothing Great About Britain had one of my favorite moments on the record where he calls Queen Elizabeth a cunt so following that up may be difficult lmao.
Tyron is broken into two halves with each being quite different. If it wasn’t clear by just listening to the album, Slowthai, made it extra obvious by putting the titles of Side A tracks in all caps and Side B tracks in lower case to further exemplify the mood on each. The first side containing a more aggressive tone with heavy trap and grime production while the second side is slower and more calm where we see vibey vocals with piano and acoustic guitar instrumentals being incorporated.
Side A
“45 SMOKE” AS AN INTRO TO THIS RECORD FEELS LIKE THE PERFECT WAY TO BRING THE LISTENER IN AND HIT THEM WITH WHAT, SLOWTHAI, DOES BEST WHICH IS HARD HOSTILE RAPPING. THAI THEN SWITCHES UP THE STYLE WITH A BABY LIKE VOICE THAT REALLY PLAYS IN WELL. IT’S A SIMPLE CHORUS BUT THERE IS A LAYER OF SMOKINESS AND CHAOS GOING ON THAT ADDS TO THE OVERALL THEME HERE.
TYRON DOES NOT WAIT LONG TO BRING ON A STAPLE IN THE GRIME COMMUNITY WITH SKEPTA FEATURED ON “CANCELLED”. SKEPTA SOUNDS GREAT ON THIS TRACK CONSIDERING HE CONTROLS MOST OF THE SONG WHILE SLOWTHAI HAS A PRETTY QUICK VERSE THAT SOUNDS GREAT BUT NOT MUCH THERE IN TERMS OF SUBSTANCE.
MOVING FORWARD WE GET “MAZZA” FEATURING ASAP ROCKY. THE DRUMS AND BASS HERE PLAY OFF EACH OTHER NICELY ADDING IN SOME EXTRA LIVELINESS OVER SOME EASY GOING PRODUCTION. SLOWTHAI AND ROCKY BOTH BRING THEIR BEST QUALITIES TO THEIR INDIVIDUAL VERSES WHILE EACH STANDOUT VOICE AND FLOW KEEP IT INTERESTING.
I THINK “VEX” AND “WOT” ARE NOTABLE TRACKS BECAUSE THEY BOTH HAVE THESE MANIPULATED VOCALS FOR THE HOOKS THAT FEEL VOID OF ANY EMPATHY WHILE SLOWTHAI IS JUST UNRAVELING AND JUST SHITTING ON THINGS THROUGH HIS LYRICS. THESE TRACKS ARE SUPER QUICK AND I WISH WERE LONGER, BUT, STILL HAVE A PURPOSE. I DID FIND THE CROISSANT LINE ON “WOT” TO BE FANTASTIC.
No еffort and I do it nonchalant
Bendy Wendy, had to doggy that down
And I make hеr bend back like croissants
WE ARE NOW TRAVELING DOWN THIS PRETTY DARK PATH SLOWTHAI HAS US ON AND THE ANGER ALONG WITH THE DRINKING AND DRUGS IS BUILDING UP. “DEAD” HAS THIS SUPER SINISTER SOUNDING HOOK FROM KWES DARKO ABOUT BEING A GOD. THE BLOOD DRIPPING PRODUCTION COMES FROM WHAT SOUNDS LIKE A DARK KEYBOARD PLAYING WITH HIGH HATS AND BASS ALONG WITH KWES DARKO’S PRONUNCIATION CREATE THIS FORMAT. NOT THE BIGGEST FAN OF THAI’S VERSES HERE, AGAIN, IT’S ABOUT HIS DRINKING AND ANGER WITH SOME CLICHE BARS THAT I WISH WERE JUST A LITTLE MORE THOUGHT OUT.
“PLAY WITH FIRE” IS SLOWER PACED AND STARTS TO TRANSITION US FOR THE NEXT HALF OF TYRON. THE ADLIBS AND PRODUCTION ON THIS TRACK GIVES THE SONG SO MUCH CHARACTER, BUT, THE VERSES HERE FEEL A LITTLE WEAK TO ME. I’M STILL TOYING WITH IF I LIKE THE LINE
My bike ain’t got no brakes, that’s why I never stop
BECAUSE AS CLICHE AS IT SOUNDS IT IS IN THEME ABOUT HOW SLOWTHAI’S MIND WORKS.
Side B
we have now reached the next half of tryon and immediately the sample on “i tried” is alarming. diving into the topic of suicide and how the world views him has caused this immense pain. the line below is just so sad and I feel like most people have felt this way or seen in it some capacity.
hug the world with open arms and they treat me like a pest
all the scars that I possess, you’re gonna do me like this?
the guitar and vocals playing in the background give slowthai’s voice such prominence on this track and even at the end we hear thai singing and this is something i hope he incorporates more.
the next song “focus” features these vibey and wavy vocals playing throughout that constantly change pitch that can be quite engulfing. this does seem like one of the more positive tracks on tyron where slowthai was able to veer away from some negative things and focus on other goals.
now that we are acclimating to the pace of the second half and its tone we continue with the track “terms” featuring dominIc fike and denzel curry. fike’s chorus is solemn about coming to terms with how things play out and how he appears while denzel is super low key on this song. slowthai’s verses and fike’s singing while they say they have come to terms with the situation it doesn’t quite appear as if they’re happy about it and also my not be handling it in the best fashion.
“push” may be my favorite song and it comes exactly at the right time. a beautiful feature from deb nevers with her soft and sweet voice along with cushioning lyrics all encompassed by an acoustic guitar hits the right note. maybe the most open and bare we’ve seen slowthai on the whole album so far and after all the struggle to still give us the line
When push comes to shove, you gotta push
is an encouraging moment.
bringing this album to its closing stages we get the tracks “nhs”, “feel away”, and “adhd”. “nhs” is the happiest song on this album with a piano playing and thai giving his world/life view by using comparisons of (this without that). it’s an okay track you get the point pretty quickly.
“feel away” is another one of my favorites featuring james blake who sounds incredible. slowthai on this track is talking about his unhealthy relationship and it gets to the point where maybe to fix things they should have a kid but he knows this is a trap comparing it to being stuck in barbed wire. once the chorus comes in this song really builds up, and james blake and slowthai both give this great performance on the closing moments as well.
the last track “adhd” embodies what tyron is about. we get two little kisses at the end, but, before that slowthai completely unravels bringing us right back to the beginning. it’s a great outro and ties this album up seamlessly.
So what do we get out of Tyron? Well the answer is… a lot. At first listen I felt quite underwhelmed because it’s not what I expected as a follow up from Nothing Great About Britain where there was anger and darkness with political references and circumstance carrying the weight. Instead of an outward war and anger towards politics and establishment, Slowthai, has now replaced this with an inward war with himself on Tyron. Yes, I think some songs could have more structured writing and overall tidying up but for Thai to embark on topics at this level is a clear showcase he is growing as an artist and Tyron is not something you should push to the side.
Albums Are Dead💀 