Travis Scott - Astroworld

The Quietus

It seems like yesterday when Travis Scott released a solid buzz-building mixtape, Days Before Rodeo which led to the birth of his debut album Rodeo. His sixth sense for experimenting with various sounds has made him an artist with a unique voice. Although his sophomore album, Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight was filled with intoxicating sounds, many fans still consider Rodeo as the gold in his discography.

Astroworld is the Houstonians third album; it is one many people have longed for. On Astroworld he reunites with previously featured artists like Migos, The Weeknd, Nav, Kid Cudi, and 21 Savage. He also invites a wave of fresh collaborators like Gunna, Juice WRLD, Drake, Frank Ocean, and Pharrell to join the party. One consistent element in all his albums is the exquisite production. With Mike Dean in charge, nothing short of that can be expected.

‘Sicko Mode’ is like a fusion of the best parts of three different songs. Drake and Travis flow like two long lost brothers reuniting and identifying the things they have in common.

Travis Scott creates music that makes your soul leave your body. ‘Stop Trying To Be God’ is a great example of that statement. This song is well-engineered and created to see any listener get lost in the groove. With Kid Cudi’s signature hum and the harmonica played by Stevie Wonder, La Flame creates a record sends chills down the spine. The repetition of “Fuck the club up” by Sheck Wes in the chorus of ‘No Bystanders’ prepares a spot for this song on every club DJ’s playlist.

‘Skeletons’ is proof that Travis Scott doesn’t do anything basic. He fuses psychedelic rock, pop, and rap into this song that results in a splash of sounds that are strikingly creative. This leads to the smooth guitar riffs and sweet hook on ‘Wake Up’. The sound of the flute which rings on ‘Yosemite’ makes this a trap melody. Nav’s outro plays no role in the song, as his low vocals make him sound disconnected from the song.

Travis Scott’s discography is like a morgue filled with beats he has killed. He continues to build on that legacy with Astroworld. Scott has no failed experiment on this album. Every beat switch, instrument infested track, and fusion of sounds brings out the creativity in the production and his style. The production on the record is one of its finest qualities. The guitar riffs on ‘Wake Up’, the harmonica on ‘Stop Trying To Be God’, and the flute in ‘Yosemite’, are unforgettable.

Travis Scott invites a league of top-rate collaborators to the album. Unlike most artists who would like to utilize featured guests to the maximum, Scott takes a different approach. There are many contributors on the album, some even unmentioned. The interesting thing about his approach is, on songs like ‘Stop Trying To Be God’, ‘Skeletons’, and ‘Yosemite’ for example, not all the guests play major vocal roles in singing as they might usually do. This genius approach by Scott leads to a blend of so many sounds, vocals that act as condiments on these songs.

Astroworld is no rodeo or birds in the trap singing McKnight, but it’s a beautiful creation of sonically striking sounds.

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Drowned In Sound 80

But even after having a child with Kylie Jenner this year, what crystallises Scott’s place in the culture is not stardom so much as fandom. Whether he’s self-releasing an action figure of himself or organising his own festival in a theme park, it’s clear his greatest priority is to give fans something to hold dear and true. That’s why if you attend any Travis Scott concert, you’ll see him haemorrhaging with the electricity of his future-punk hits as they collide with diehard fans. Each generation only produces a few live musicians that really find the power to ignite audiences at such a magnitude, and Scott is one of the very first to bring said magnitude to live hip hop.

To decode the brilliance of Astroworld in a greater world of seemingly similar pop-hop records requires an ear for subtlety. It’s the putrid 808 throb of 'Sicko Mode' and the nose-breaking bass swells on ‘Who? What!' which will leave mushroom clouds over venues across the world this year. It’s the balance of those head-bangers with the snake-charming lull of ‘Yosemite' or the easy-street bounce of 'Coffee Bean.’ It’s the beat switch midway through ‘Stargazing’ that, despite changing key and tempo, feels inexplicably perfect, like intergalactic channel surfing. It’s his hypnotic use of melodic semitones throughout the beaming Tame Impala–produced interlude, 'Skeletons.' It’s the chorus of '5% Tint' that carries the classic hip hop trope of peeking between the blinds with the barrel of a hand cannon, complete with a Diddy-esque saloon piano beat and a verse beginning with “Who the fuck is this?” in reference to Biggie’s 'Warning’ (take note of the importance of historical literacy, Lil Yachty).

Though traditional zealots of music will struggle to deny the strength of Astroworld’s songwriting and production, they will inevitably argue that the quality is owed more to his collaborators than Scott himself; indeed, there are many producers and guest features on all Scott’s albums. The subtext there would be that he is some fraud, finagling more talented people to make him appear a musical genius, as if anyone can whip up a phenomenal album as long as they’ve got money and power to do it. That's patently untrue; if it were, Tyga and Wiz Khalifa would have released classic albums this year, but they didn’t because they're missing the razor-sharp aesthetic vision that Travis Scott demonstrates with almost all of the sonic and visual content he releases.

‘Stop Trying to Be God’ is a key example of that vision in action, where Scott, James Blake, gospel singer Philip Bailey, the unmistakable moans of Kid Cudi, and Stevie Wonder’s harmonica come together. (Anyone in the industry knows that a musician’s ability to bring other great musicians together is an age-old art in itself, which explains why Scott also has Frank Ocean and Drake firing at their apex in the album’s top portion.) In a monotone that sounds unfazed by the prophets of music surrounding him, Scott radiates newfound maturity on the song, stepping up to bestow advice to fans on the dangers of egoism: “Fuck the money, never leave your people behind / It’s never love no matter what you try.” It’s a personal best for Scott, and James Blake delivers a bridge that may be his most breathtaking work since ‘Retrograde.’

It seems nowadays that in an instant, an artist’s public image will jump from humble wunderkind getting their big break to towering idol in need of dethroning. Critics have disparaged Scott's excellent debut album Rodeo for being more a product of lucky networking than artistry – but perhaps if they heard the independently-produced songs from his beginner stages, like 'Lights (Lovesick)', they’d be reminded that no matter how many contributors he enlists, the unique sound and experience is still wholly his own.

Pitchfork 78

Travis Scott’s third album is inarguably his strongest to date. His skill as a curator helps sculpt a sticky, humid, psychedelic world with dazzling production and odd pleasures at every turn.