Hey, everyone. Saythony Whattano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Logic album, Ultra 85.

Logic, singer, rapper, lyricist, songwriter, guy. He has a new album out. It's titled Ultra 85. Which if you're a hardcore fan of his, this thing over here is a very long awaited, and teased project.

But yeah, if you're not that invested in the Logic lore, you might not know how big of a deal it is for him to release specifically this album at this point, when he's at an era in his career where he's "retired," while not really being all that retired because he keeps coming out with music.

But I will admit, over the last several years, there has been a massive shift in the way that this guy creates and operates. I mean, if he's technically retired from anything, it is the mainstream label-backed era of his career, where he was very much chasing after the highs of commercial success as well as the love of the audience, which for someone who reached the levels of popularity that Logic did, is pretty impressive no matter how you cut it.

I mean, it's funny. He often will flex on his most recent projects that over the course of his career, he did something like $30 million in the ballpark of that. And apparently, that was enough for him to say, essentially, that I've had enough. I can basically chill or stop doing this or just start going about doing it in a way that's different now.

And there are loads of other artists out there who most likely have made much more over the course of their career, but seemingly cannot stop running on the industry treadmill. They're still sweating the commercial success of their next project and constantly allowing themselves to be at the mercy of whatever trends are bubbling up around them.

With that being said, though, not every record and tape Logic has dropped since his retirement has been great. We have some weird ideas coming out here and there, some B-sides, the Bobby Tarantino thing. But even with the flubs that we have gotten since the retirement, it's clear that Logic, again, is doing things more on his own terms, musically, and also in terms of using his art as a means of exploring his struggles with depression, insecurity, mental health, family history, and the way that he's grown as a person over the course of his career, including how his recent dive into fatherhood has changed him, and a whole host of other things, too, which has been interesting to witness, especially since it all seems like it's coming to a head here on Ultra 85, as this is handily Logic's most confident and also mature record ever, which maybe in one breath might be tough to argue, given that a lot of his early releases had a certain, I would say, ignorance is bliss naivete about them.

He was just so driven and full of energy and youthful. There was a certain passion he had for what he did that cannot be replicated, and he admits as much on a couple of bars on this record, too. And while down the road, I wouldn't say his passion died, but it most definitely changed and was heavily impacted by the self-awareness that was brought on by the limelight shining on him for so long, especially with such a negative reception over a lot of his records that he's dropped over the years and the hate he's received from even contemporaries in the genre he cares so much about.

This is something that on one level or another, a lot of artists have to deal with, but many of them don't really find their footing afterwards. For years, it seemed like logic would just befall that same fate. However, on Ultra 85, I think he makes a really admirable switch and actually sounds like he is in his bag once again with his flows, with his bars, and can actually dish out a very hefty helping of brutal honesty in the process. It's refreshing and also surprising, too, considering that it feels like Logic is still the same guy on this record that he's always been.

He's driven, he's determined, he's hard working, he's focused, but also nerdy and a little hokey, too. And for a long time, and I don't mean this in a mean-spirited way, but there's been something about Logic and what he does that comes across as just a bit basic or surface level. It's like he's trying to get to the heart of something and dig down to a very painful emotion on certain tracks, but failing to really dig deep enough to display the profundities that you might get something on a Kendrick album, for example, or any number of very moody or left field abstract hip hop artists.

It's also important to note that Logic is just so unapologetically a fan boy of the media that matters the most to him, whether it be music, especially hip hop. Logic is also a guy who's been known to love his Tarantino, his Family Guy. There's even a Polanski reference on a few bars on the record that I think the album just could have gone without. (You want to meet him at a dinner party to ask him why he's on the run?)

Anyway, Logic has just always seemed like this guy who has a bit of a troubled past.

But still, despite all of that, he's relatively happy-go-lucky anyway, and he's just really passionate about the stuff that he's into and occasionally can be a bit cringe. No more, no less.

Watching him take off with a rap career in the way that he did is like seeing the nicest guy you know just win the lottery, which is cute and adorable and cool, but also can elicit a lot of negative and angry reactions from jealous individuals who wish they were doing the same because, Oh, he's so mid, and, Oh, he doesn't deserve it, which you could argue that, but I think there has always been a bit of an everyman appeal to Logic that goes a little underappreciated by some people, as many of his hardcore fans see themselves in him and take inspiration from that.

And there's nothing per se bad about that, especially in this new era of his here on Ultra 85, where he is legitimately making some profound connections on multiple tracks within his life, within his passion for music and art. I feel like Logic's physical and emotional trauma, which he has long been open about, along with his fandom, actually integrate in a way that's just more than middle-brow because he's actually making it clear this time around on multiple tracks that his passion, the big driver behind his love for this media, is that it was a means of escape from the abuse and neglect and hunger and anger and sadness and depression that he was feeling during his adolescence on a regular basis. And disappearing into the things he loved the most was his only means of coping with that and surviving it. Which like, fuck, that's pretty heavy.

Other revelations on this record include Logic confronting his obsession with validation from the audience and critics alike and making, once again, connections to the media he loves the most in the process of that. In one ingenious example on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", where he pretty much goes over his whole progression, artistically and personally, explaining it through Tarantino movies and goes over how as he as a person changed, his favorite Tarantino movie changed for different reasons because he saw a different sides of himself in different movie scenes, characters. And look, I love Tarantino. I think he has some great movies. Is he my favorite director? No. And I feel like any debate, for example, who's the best? Is it Nolen or is it Tarantino? My eyes glaze over with boredom just thinking of that conversation. So yeah, not interesting. But what is interesting is exploring Tarantino's works as a means of coming to an understanding of why Logic, as an individual person, suffers and struggles emotionally in the way that he does.

That is depth. That is attention to detail. It's just that Logic is going about doing it in the only language he knows how to explain it. Because not only is it interesting to hear how the Kill Bill soundtrack becomes a point of entry for Logic to get into this thing - hip hop - that he loves the most and has made his whole life about. But it's also genuinely devastating to hear him go into this linear narrative that explains how he's never going to have the passion for doing what he does that he once did when he was younger, like I was explaining earlier. Because he's grown, because he's changed, because his life is different, his priorities have shifted, and all that he can really do is just find other reasons to continue doing it, which, again, makes this the most Logic album that's ever Logic'd.

Not just because of all the stuff I just said, but also some of the spacy emotional cuts that he's known for, the big boom bap jazz rap anthems. Of course, the space skits are back with the two guys manning the ship. They are as badly acted and as overwrought as ever, though I will say the sound effects have been upgraded. It's pretty cinematic. Plus, I feel like the characters that man the ship, it's become more apparent than ever that these dudes are the two wolves that live inside him, like skeptical, smart-alec-y, comedy relief black guy, and then also like, Yes, I'm the captain of the ship. I know what I'm doing, like ultra-confident chisel-jaw type white guy.

I feel like in a way, Ultra 85... he's been trying to make this album, literally this album, over and over and over and over. It's like seeing a painter try to paint the same painting again and again and again and again. But on previous attempts, the production wasn't quite there. The musical knowledge and depth wasn't quite there. The self-awareness wasn't quite there. There were so many frigging excruciating bars. The skits, while they haven't improved that much, a lot of what they contained previously on other records, was crap like, Oh, yeah, Logic totally changed the future of hip hop. Whereas this time, the discussions center more around the much healthier and more sensible themes on this album, like escaping from the pain and suffering that everyday life is dealing you and also trying to be more open about your feelings and sharing them as a way of gaining understanding on them and just being a healthier and more balanced person.

Even the way, once again, Logic addresses the polarizing back and forths around him being biracial on "Peace, Love, and Positivity", as well as "Deja Vu", it feels like he's approaching this topic with a lot more perspective and conviction than he has in the past, especially during tracks and in instances where he was laughing it off and trying to let it roll off his back in a way where, Ha ha, I get it, funny guys, but it was clearly getting to him, and he admits as much on this album.

In many ways, Logic truly does seem to be at peace on this record, or at least he's become just great at convincing me that's the case.

Look, this noticeable emotional shift within him is hard not to hear, especially when it comes to just the fast, confident, impressive, braggadocious rapping, which is really the bread and butter of many songs on this project. Be that on the nine-minute opener, which is packed with glamorous pianos, vintage vocal chops, booming beats, too, over which Logic is just exasperatedly rapping, really spitting like his life depends on it, and not just in a way that is flashy and technical, because it is most certainly that.

But it really is going through this very logical stream of consciousness of exploring his feelings, his growth, his past as well. It's very edge of your seat. It's very passionate. And I would say really Zen of him, too, to go about displaying his feelings in this way.

There are more electrifying moments deeper into the project, too, like "Mission Control", the freaking Gucci Mane "Lemonade" sample on this. What!?

"Deja Vu", once again, that I mentioned earlier with DJ Drama is hype as hell. It is a super hypnotic but just high octane piece of jazz rap.

Meanwhile, "Favela" is a crazy emotional shift and moody oasis in the midst of the record. The piano loop is incredible. It's a bit headier, it's a bit sadder in tone, but Logic still packs the track with lots of witty wordplay and charismatic brags, talking about how other people's shit is stale that he wouldn't feed ducks with it.

There's "Gardens III", which contains this actually incredible reggae flip. Spacey vocal samples, too. Lyrically, it's pretty impressive as well with Logic telling this inspiring progression of how he became the person he is today.

And from here, we get into more emotional moments on the album, too, like "Ghost in the Machine", which is more classy soul-chop hip hop, where Logic details the things in his life that actually make him wealthy: his family, his health, his happiness, his mental health.

Meanwhile, "Interstellar" is a song that's all about maintaining passion for your dreams, which, like I said earlier, is another recurring theme on this project. We also have Logic going into peak trauma mode as well in retrospect, where he's doing his best to dive into the psyche of one of his haters, why they dislike him so much, why they're so obsessed, especially at this point where he's no longer as huge or as just massive commercially as he was at one point. He goes on to ask if this person who is so deeply just infatuated with him, if they've been abused or mistreated at some point, and then goes on to say that he has similar struggles has had similar struggles with negative feelings because he suffered that same treatment, which for my taste is maybe a bit too much pathologizing.

But I do think he inadvertently makes a valid point in terms of things like hatred and abuse being as a result of some cycle where you've been mistreated, you have been taken advantage of in some way, and then you dole that out onto others down the road.

There are a few semi-lows deeper into the tracklist, like "44ever", which is... It's not a terrible track by any means, but I think instrumentally with its slick trap beat and its lack of real profound lyrical focus, it just doesn't hit as hard as many other songs on the record.

"Love Me" features lots of very fast melodic flows over looping danceable break beats. There's another moment on the record where Logic is doing something similar stylistically on the song "Fear". I don't think stuff in this vein is necessarily Logic's strongest suit, but with that being said, I will admit he has improved on these tracks in comparison with other instances in the past where he's done something along these lines. I do think "Love Me" comes to a very essential emotional peak toward the end, where Logic is really confronting, again, that once very intense obsession with getting the audience to like him on a personal level.

There are a few more great bops on the back end of the record, like "Teleport" as well as "Antidote", which I think is one of the hardest and most effortlessly cool songs he's ever put out. For one, the ZelooperZ feature on that. Sick, cool, awesome. Love that you did that. And then also on the hook, "Got my shirt off in this hole like I'm D'Angelo". What the hell is this swagger? Where did this swagger come from? I don't know, but I like it and I respect it.

I think the last couple of tracks on the record are maybe a bit too washed out and melodramatic for my taste, though I do appreciate the sentiment, especially on the closer, "Thank You For Believing in Me". But yeah, overall, there are a handful of tracks on this record that I think are meh. And once again, the skits are heavy-handed, even if at this point, I do think there is something weirdly endearing about them, having heard them evolve in the fashion that they have over the years at this point.

And overall, I will say I think This is Logic's best album in a long, long, long, long, long time; lots of very intense and, I think, profound emotional, personal deep dives throughout the record, even if they're being done with language and reference points that a lot of people might not seem to think are deep. The actual things that Logic is digging into actually are those things. So don't get it misconstrued. I think he was truly on to something with how he was developing this record and executed it really well. And this album, to me, is just a really great piece of proof of how Logic has grown over the years, personally and artistically.

Just really feels like it's all coming together on this album in an entertaining, enjoyable, and impressive way, which is why I'm feeling a light eight on this one,

Anthony Fantano. Logic. Forever.