Never done an album review on here before, but I thought I'd start with Psychodrama by Dave. The review will go over the 3 main concerns I have with this project

• Storytelling
• Production
• Delivery

At various points i will be comparing/pretty much also reviewing Nothing Great About Britain by Slowthai alongside it, as I feel this album really exceeds in the areas Psychodrama lacks

The lyrics are probably my biggest concern with this album. Dave takes a completely different route with this album than with most if his prior work as he takes a splash into more conscious writing and trying to tell meaningful stories.

But he tries WAYY too hard, and his stories have absolutely no emotional connection at all. The lyrics are very plain and don't actually go into why any of these stories actually affect him or any character he's trying to portray, he's just kind of stating what's happening

Compare that with NGAB, where slowthai is on almost every track telling us what's going on and why it's affecting him and the people in his life, and it's an album that I feel much more connected to, simply by his storytelling, even if I relate to almost none of the lyrics

Production is also a big issue for me on Psychodrama. There's just too much piano. Again, Dave tries way too hard to try and make the music seem more emotional than it actually is by adding piano chords throughout almost every song, and it's really unnecessary.

It would probably be less annoying to me if the piano chords were put on the songs in an interesting way, but they're not. They're just thrown on there as a way to force u into feeling some sort of emotion, and it just rubs me the opposite way of how it's intended

Compare that with NGAB, where each beat has a fire in its belly and is something incredibly unique and amazingly sounding, even if it is ever so slightly repetitive at times, and it doesn't feel forced at all. It feels uncut and raw, which adds to the emotions of the album

Finally, the delivery. Dave's delivery is very stale to me. He's incredibly monotone, and that has a big impact on my enjoyment. He sounds very bored giving us these songs and incredibly uninterested on several songs

How is Dave expecting me to feel any connection to the album when there's hardly any points and Psychodrama where he even sounds like he cares about what he's saying

With NGAB, slowthai has a very weird and energetic delivery, and makes the album that much more entertaining, and the lyrics that much more powerful, particularly Northamptons Child, where you can hear his pain as he pretty much recites his entire childhood experience.

Overall, Dave feels like if J Cole was British. Dave is huge, like J Cole. They both have relatively ok lyrics thst their fans perceive to be godlike. They both have production in their music that is incredibly boring and stale and again, forces an emotion on the listener

And they also have a pretty monotone delivery. In saying that, Cole is easily a much better storyteller and does have some emotional reach, particularly on his 4 Your Eyez Only album.

Thank you for reading if you did, was bored so gave it a shot. I wrote this all in one take so I may not have got my opinions across very well. Feel free to disagree music is subjective and enjoy your day