Hi, everyone. Badthony Staintano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Joey Valence & Brae album, Hyperyouth.

Joey Valence and Brae are a rapper-producer duo hailing from Pennsylvania, and they are now on their third full-length LP here. Despite the fact that these guys have only been formally releasing music for several years now, they have established a pretty diehard fan base that deeply enjoy the humor, their nerdiness and enthusiasm that they pretty much put into every single one of their songs.

Now, their popularity has been growing so much. They have been able to sign on with a major label. This record is coming out through RCA, which most likely helped with some of the massive sample clearances and interpolations on this project, many of which I don't feel the need to go over because Joey Valence and Brae just wear their influences on their sleeve on this project. If you need a Skrillex "Bangarang" or Andre 3000 "Forever ever ever" reference explained, I don't know what to do. I can't help you.

But this is not just a record of big samples, but also big emotions, as Joey Valence and Brae are most definitely going for a more versatile and dynamic sound on this project in the wake of their banger-packed 2024 album, No Hands.

The production on Hyperyouth has most definitely been beefed up. Pretty much everything about JVB's sound feels brighter, louder, and more over the top, which I think leads to some even more vibrant bangers and pop-centric cuts, like the opening title track, for example, which is this club banger loaded with some Porter Robinson-esque dreamy interludes. It's like a psychedelic jock jam with all of its sweet keys and in your face raps.

It really does try to set the tone for this record's deeper themes around having fun, being yourself, growing up. JVB manages that not only through their attitudes, but also a healthy dose of nostalgia on a lot of these tracks, too, because there are so many songs on this album that really hit the nail on the head with a vintage club vibe. "Bust Down", for example, is like bringing us straight back into Nelly, Neptunes territory. There's also a killer feature from TiaCorine on this track as well that elevates it immensely.

But for the most part here, you do get your typical Joey Valence and Brae magic, where a lot of the appeal is driven by their bars that are clearly coming from a place where they're just trying to make each other laugh in the studio. Like on this track when Brae says, "I'm half amazing and I'm half Asian / I'm so good, you can say, I'm amasian."

Even though the duo has changed quite a bit since last year and they're going for something slightly different on this record, this is really where they're at their best, honestly, where they're just balancing their brashness and their silliness over some trunk-knocking drums and blaring samples.

I would say this is also the on the following "Give It To Me", which has almost a Beastie Boys, check your head energy to it, given the Spock references on the lyrics and also the whaling guitar samples playing throughout the track.

However, it's cuts like "Is This Love" where I think things drop off a little bit. With this song – I don't know what's in the water right now, but it feels like everybody and anybody is putting a song on their record where they're going for a throwback R&B dance anthem, whether it's Drake and PartyNextDoor with "Nokia", or JID on a track from his recent record, or Tyler, the Creator. It's just in the air right now, and JVb are contributing their own effort here on this track.

While I do think the production does a great job of serving this energy, serving this sound, I still think Joey Valence and Brae have a while to go to actually find a way to make a much more measured approach vocally work just as well for them as when they're just turning the energy up to 11 and shouting their verses into the microphone. The track overall is fine.

The bigger disappointment comes with the song "Party's Over", which is really the album's big attempt at digging into these ideas of growing up and changing and becoming a different person and remaining true to yourself even as your life and the world around you changes. But between all the misaligned rhymes and weak deliveries and shallow bars, I just don't feel like this song adds up to too much. I mean, on the surface, the song sounds moody and sounds like it's dealing with some internal emotional conflict and absolutely sadness and mootiness around coming of age as a topic. It's certainly warranted. But when trying to speak directly to it, looking right at Joey Valence and Brae's lyrics, they just don't have that much to say about it.

Throughout this album, there are more substantive statements made on topics like letting go and having fun, which there's nothing wrong with, mind you. It's, I guess, that the lack of depth around these moodier spots on the record leaves them feeling forced. Not to mention how awkward Joey Valence and Brae's deliveries once again sound when they're not really firing on all cylinders.

The track "See U Dance" is another fantastic cut on the record, brings big Timbaland/Nelly Fertado vibes, especially with Rebecca Black sounding as great as she does on the hook. She may, in fact, be the best feature on the entire album, with a close second being JPEGMAFIA on "What's Up", a single that sounds even better in the actual tracklist, as the gang vocals and horn hits and clunky sample drops throughout the song really provide a massively hype moment in the middle of the record. But yeah, this song just once again exemplifies just how much JVB have the formula for a good time ingrained into their DNA.

Now, "Live Right", despite being one of the mellower moments on the album, is actually a highlight for me. The instrumental captures this mix of M83, MGMT, classic indietronic, synth pop anthem energy, maybe a little M.I.A. vibes, too. I love this track a lot. There is a sincere feeling of hope and passion, a thirst for life in the chorus. Somehow, JVB just do a better job of plugging into the sentimental feelings they're pulling at for a majority of this album here.

Throughout the rest of the album, there are a few more bops to be had. There's "Billie Jean", which has some oh, shit gang vocals and a few other elements that remind me of a recent bops from groups such as Injury Reserve. "Have to Cry" is another emotional moment that I think goes down pretty well, really a rapping through the tears and staying hype through the pain anthem. And while I do find "The Party Song" pretty grating for the most part, "Go Hard" is one of the craziest bangers the duo has ever put together with one of the most well-executed Afrika Bambaataa "Planet Rock" samples I think I've ever heard.

Then to finish things off, we have the closer, which is another emotional moment on the album, credits roll spot on the LP, if you will. It features some pretty prominent key samples from Dreams We've Had, "News from the War", a song which in itself feels like a Beach House ripoff. And Joey Valence and Brae's lyrics here... I do appreciate them a lot, because they come across very humble and cool and appreciative of where they're at in their career. I really love the part where Brae's rapping about finding his spark when he met Joey. There is something beautiful and sincere and wonderful about the way these guys collaborate and just create together.

Still, even if that is something I love about this track and JVB in general, there are moments where their flows on this track come across as rough or clunky. In addition to that, the sung vocals on the hook are just really muddled and don't sound that great.

So once again, when putting together tracks that are a bit more mellow and emotional, there is something about the JVB recipe that feels a little bit off. And as of right now, again, I'm chalking a lot of that up to just some kinks that are going to be smoothed out with more, I guess, experimenting and more effort going in this direction, because there's just so much talent and there's so much vibrance and there's so much creativity showcased on many of the group's louder and more energetic tracks. It's just not translating to every moment on this new album, but I feel like that's just what's going to happen when you're taking a risk and trying something different.

While I didn't find this record to be as consistent or as, I guess, flawless as No Hands in comparison, it's still a more ambitious and earnest album, and it still has me sitting on the edge of my seat, looking forward to everything that they're going to do past this point. That's not to discount the record on the whole, because there's still a lot of amazing highlights on this thing, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong 7 on it.

Anthony Fantano, Joy Valence & Brae, Forever.