Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new James Blake and Lil Yachty project, Bad Cameo.

Is this a bad cameo? Right here? Yes, it is a bad cameo.

Here we have a new surprise album from two of the most unique individuals on the modern popular music landscape, James Blake and Lil Yachty. If you are only casually aware of the work of James Blake and Lil Yachty, the stuff they have released over the past decade, you might be looking at this collaboration and just be thinking, what the hell? Oh, man, this guy's like a rapper living in Atlanta, and this other guy is like an electronic music producer/crooner boy from the UK. But when you actually look deeper into the respective catalogs of each of these individuals, visuals, this collaboration actually makes quite a bit of sense, as I think James Blake and Yachty are a lot more peanut butter and jelly than they are oil and water, especially when you consider the various collaborative and supportive roles that James has played on the production side or background vocal side on any number of rap and rap-adjacent projects and albums over the years.

Also take into account the fact that Little Yachty has been getting quite experimental in recent days with his output dabbling quite a bit in pop music and psychedelic music, too. So yeah, between Blake and Yadi, there is more creative overlap than some may assume on the surface.

The vibe and combination of styles that these two come together with on this record is a little difficult to define genre-wise. Maybe because the songs and structures that these two forge on this record tend to run abstract, track a little linear. The opening track, for example, may not be my favorite on the record, but it's at least a pretty effective tone setter in terms of giving you an idea of what is to come. Lots of spacey, immersive, subtle, nuanced beats, topped with Yachty's melodic and boyish lead vocals and rap flows. The pace of it all isn't exactly thrilling per se, but it is vibey, especially as James's angelic vocal harmonies come into the fold in the second half. So yeah, there are some pretty moments on the track as a song. It's an interesting notion, but I can't help but feel like the progression of the track isn't keeping me engaged too much.

And that a bunch of other songs on this record, while they do contain some compelling sounds and vocal parts, they feel more like loose motifs than properly formulated and groomed and structured tracks, which I know James and Yachty are perfectly capable of doing on their own, but maybe they just wanted to do something more impressionistic for this crossover.

Either way, again, there are numerous songs on this 10 track record that I think strike up a cool aura, like the droning, haunting waves of slow moving sound effects and tones on the title track, which is maybe the most abstract cut of the bunch. But the song doesn't really do much other than just establish a vibe, a sense of place, and then it eventually fizzles out. I imagine for somebody who hasn't had a whole lot of exposure to this thing, it could be a bit mind bending or refreshing. The textures and atmospheres that are laced into the production are certainly impressive. But again, for me, the entire thing just goes nowhere fast.

Meanwhile, some of the tracks that actually go somewhere feature climaxes and finales that are falling a little short, like the clutter of beats and new agey sound effects in "Gray", which are not really that hard-hitting, or the mess of wailing synths and trap high hats and what sounds like some acid bass hits on "Transport Me".

It's a lot of sound, but not a lot of coherence, in my opinion. Though despite falling short musically and structurally, there are some cuts that at least provide a bit of lyrical focus, like in the case of "Missing Man", which is very much about a man or a father who doesn't seem to be very present in the lives of his family. There's also "Red Carpet" as well, which is a track that's really all about valuing love and intimacy and privacy and peace over the fame and attention and the audience judgment that often comes with that. But yeah, the lyrical angle on this one I just found to be way more interesting than the music that underscores it.

The only two tracks on the record that really truly hit for me were most likely "Midnight" as well as "Woo". I feel like in terms of rhythm, song structure, standout choruses, general high points, these songs were really it. Pretty much every other song felt like it was, again, coming up short in a lot of basic aspects or just naval gazing and wading so deeply into the abstract weeds that they just lose any and all momentum.

I guess at the end of the day, again, while I do think James and Yachty have and continue to have a lot in common, creatively, the full potential of that artistic overlap was just not really realized on this project. I think that's mostly due in part to the songs themselves, just being so scant and being so sketchy, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong five on this one.

Have you given this album a listen? Did you love it? Did you hate it? What would you rate it? You're the best, you're the best. What should I review next? Please subscribe and please don't cry. Hit the bell as well. Over here next to my head is another video that you can check out. Hit that up or the link to subscribe to the channel. Anthony Fantano. Bad Cameo. Forever.