Jack Harlow has been slowly climbing to popularity since he started his rap career. Thanks to hit songs like “Thru the Night,” “What's Poppin,” and “Industry Baby,” he has been one of the most mainstream artists of the past year.
Following this momentum, Harlow recently released his sophomore LP titled “Come Home The Kids Miss You” with expectations of almost 200,000 album sales in the first week.
Album Highs
As stated previously, this album had star power: from an intense and heavily appreciated Drake feature on “Churchill Downs” to a well-thought-out collaboration with Justin Timberlake. However, while the collaborations were all with huge names, the features were not any of the artists best.
Harlow also had a smooth flow throughout the album drawing comparisons to Drake’s “Take Care” album. His lyrical ability has definitely taken a step up compared to his tapes previous to signing with Atlantic Records.
Album Lows
There are two issues with this album that many people, including myself, could not get past.
First, people compared his flow to some of Drake’s work, and many saw that as a problem.
Through the entirety of the project, Jack seemed to be flirting with the audience, something you can get the best dosage of in the track "Movie Star," featuring Pharrell Williams. Personally, this aspect of the album was dull and made me lose attention. Unfortunately, there was really no break from this style.
The second element that muddied this album was the lack of life and emotion. In this LP, Jack appeared to be a shell of himself; his voice lacked distinction and energy for most of the project's 51 minutes.
In addition, while amazing on paper, the features were almost too commercial, while his past work featured a better mix of other Kentucky based artists and smaller acts.
While I can see the style that Jack attempted, it appears that the rapper was not truly being himself and that this was nothing more than an attempt. Still, this is not all negative, as Jack is projected to double the sales of his debut album, still coming quite short of his original projected sales.
The improvement in sales does not change the fact that this album had high expectations and had the potential to be the summer album of the year. Instead, this was in my opinion, the most mediocre album of 2022 so far, and Jack has taken a hit in his popularity.
I give the album a 4 out of 10.
Best Tracks:
“First Class”
“Young Harleezy”
“Movie Star”
