Hi, everyone. Great googly-moogly here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of the new PARTYOF2 album, AMERIKA'S NEXT TOP PARTY!.

Here we have a brand new album, the debut album of a LA-based music duo, PARTYOF2. They are rappers, singers, songwriters, producers, former child actors, too, actually. How was Jadagrace in the goddamn Terminator movie?

Okay, I'm sure they don't want me to bring that up. All right, okay. Either way, for a moment, these guys were a part of a trio, and they were trying to make a name for themselves independently as a trio that was going by the name of, Group Therapy. They were releasing and producing music for a while in the 2020s, built up to a full-length debut in 2023 that, frankly, blew me as a first introduction. It featured an array of different bangers that just had great mixes of pop and rap and R&B, and just a lot of standout bars, a lot of impressive choruses. It was a record that just had me feeling like, "Whoa, who is this hot new group on the scene. I'm gagged." I don't know if you want to say that. Can I say that? Can I say I was gagged a bit? I was gagged.

But then I went from that to surprised when I came to learn that Group Therapy, very quickly, would no longer be a thing as they lost one of their key members and then were whittled down to just a duo, Swim and Jadagrace.

Now, apparently in the midst of this lineup change, Group Therapy, eventually becoming PARTYOF2, was already in talks with Def Jam Records to sign a deal, put out some music. However, even with this lineup and name change happening, the label still decided to go forward with the duo. Still did a deal, still did an album. Here is the record.

It had some really big and impressive singles in the lead-up, and it's an interesting release. Eleven tracks, a little on the short side with 30 minutes and change in the run time. A pretty wide variety of directions and influences across the tracklist, too. In fact, I would even say broader than that of Group Therapy with that last album, even with this record being noticeably shorter. As you have tracks on here that are jazz-rap flavored, other cuts that had more of a dance direction. Kanye vibes, Kendrick vibes, Brockhampton vibes, a little bit of pop, a little bit of RnB, some rap rock too, apparently. Some very personal, heart-wrenching and contemplative moments that sit shoulder to shoulder with these high concept cookey numbers.

Even if it is a little on the short side, the album is a bit of a roller coaster ride. It really feels like PARTYOF2 is taking this opportunity to really reset things, reintroduce themselves, bring it all in a new direction, and take a handful of risks in order to just see what will or won't stick with audiences in this new formation.

Truth be told, off the bat, I will say I did enjoy that debut Group Therapy album overall more than I did AMERIKA’S NEXT TOP PARTY! here. However, in a way, I see more potential in what this album is doing, given just how 'out there' some of it is and how ambitious some of it is. I mean, again, as good as that Group Therapy album was, there were also elements of it that felt like the album was just doing a really great job of playing to a very well-established and predictable sound.

Meanwhile, I can't really think of any music duos out there currently that are doing tracks like "POSER" where you're getting these really cookey key, over the top, almost like cheerleader-type gang vocal sections set to really big horn line-type horn sections and beats. Silly chants of, "Biiitch, you're a poser." It's colorful, it's cartoony, it's incredibly catchy. I also can't think of a lot of duos out there who have done a track as funny and as conceptual as "FRIENDLY FIRE" right now, where Jada and Swim essentially go back and forth dissing each other as if they are locked into a battle of sorts.

Honestly, some of the bars get nasty, not just in terms of language and tone, but it's clear from the song that these two have had a long history with each other, and they essentially weaponize the fact that they've been friends for so long against one another on the track. That's just a familiarity that you don't often get in a lot of rap battles.

Look, beyond cuts like this, there are other standouts, too. The opening track, for example, brings together a lot of Kanye and Kendrick vibes, passionate rapping, big booming beats, and lots of glossy atmospheric instrumentation orbiting around this planet of a starter. Between Swims' opening verse and Jadagrace's very moody, acoustic outro, the song undergoes quite the evolution.

Following this, there's "OUT OF BODY", which I do appreciate as an ambitious moment as they're really trying to pull off a bit of a rap metal thing with huge rips, with rock drums, definitely some nods toward groups like Linkin Park and Evanescence. However, I will say the drums and guitars at points run thin, a little too brittle and distorted. The song certainly could have brought in more bass just to thicken things up and really make it roar and vibe like a proper rock song. The more I listen to the track, the more I hear the ingredients, the bare elements are there, but it could have used some retooling just to make it sound harder and heavier.

"JUST DANCE 2" is another track track that I love the idea of, but simultaneously, I do have some reservations here and there because there are sections that do feel almost like the duo is trying to do maybe a bit of a satirical play on, or a parody of, some of the shades of dance music that they're toying with, especially around the middle.

But still, I love the idea of a duo like this trying to, in their own way, artistically address numerous sounds within the halls of dance music, different eras of it, and absolutely smashing it at some point, especially with Jadagrace's soaring lead vocals toward the end of the song. She's just absolutely singing her ass off. "VANESSA WILLIAMS" is another track that I think could have been stronger in some ways. I do like what the track is alluding to in terms of these references toward American values in a very tongue-and-cheek way. Success, money, ambition. Also referencing this idea that societally we're being pushed in different directions ideologically and how that's destroying us.

But while I don't disagree with any of these sentiments per se, I don't think Jada and Swim do enough to really dig into them with any depth. The song, politically speaking, ends up feeling more like a nod than a discourse. I should also mention Vanessa Williams's voice actually opens the track up with a nod to the two-headed hound that is on the cover of the album. "FEEL LOVE" is a surprise, a lovey-dovey cut with some Kaytranada production. Lots of smooth grooves.Of course, the instrumentation is great. Some of the bars get quite flirty.

Then "SAVE YOURSELF" is a moment that actually gets quite dark personally, where Swim and Jada address the ways in which their respective family lives have been so turbulent to the point where they felt that they have needed to be more independent, personally, to survive. A topic, an angle, that I feel like was worthy of maybe more than a few minutes of music and two verses. On high, while I do appreciate the way in which Kendrick's sound and influence pops up on this record subtly, here, it just reads as maybe a bit too loud as the production pretty much feels like a leftover from TPAB. But "BIG" is a fantastic track, and "HEAVEN ON EARTH" is actually a really blissful aspirational outro.

Oh, no, I lost my hat and the rest of my clothes for that matter. Okay, what we're looking at with this record is a mostly solid tracklist with a lot of strong, catchy, impressive, singular moments. Not a super cohesive macro picture or anything like that. I feel like what this record does and accomplishes for the most part is that it shows what the duo can do and is capable of currently, immediately after this reset.

And given that things had changed so quickly and radically, I don't know if the album needs to do anything more than that, especially with highlights like "BIG" and "POSER", "FRIENDLY FIRE", JUST DANCE 2", which are bolstered by a very strong intro and outro.

So yeah, while it does seem like since turning into PARTYOF2, Jada and Swim have most definitely landed on their feet, it still sounds like they're picking up the pieces a bit and figuring out where to go next and still dropping some super entertaining tracks in the process, which is why I'm feeling maybe a light 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, PARTYOF2. Forever.