Listening to DJ Snake’s smash hit collaboration with Lil John “Turn Down for What”, gives you a certain expectation for his music and about Encore, his debut album that just came out. Something big, flashy, bombastic, and more than a little stupid. Full of pulse-racing EDM tracks that will worm their way into your brain and leave you jumping for more. What we got was ok at best, with a few tracks that will sit with me for all of the wrong reasons.

It starts off ok, with a restrained and generic sound that disappoints and surprises with it’s restrained qualities. It’s a softer, slower beat than what you would expect, and it carries through much of the album. Presented differently it wouldn’t be bad, but here it simply feels out of place. Most of the album feels very similar to this, with only a few songs sticking out at all. It attempts to kick off the beat with the third track, “Sahara”, which starts on the same slow foot before leading into a somewhat promising drop that is ruined by a high-pitched grating synth. It almost hurts to listen to.

I listen to a lot of music for this project. Dozens of new albums every month. Hundreds of hours of tracks. And “Sahara” has the unfortunate honor of being one of the worst songs I’ve listened to this year. It taints the rest of the album with its presence. And it is damn disappointing that he tries to use the same sound more than once. There are a few solid tracks here. “Ocho Cinco” is pretty good, and I’m a fan of both “The Half” and “Here Comes the Night”, although how much of that is because I’m a shameless Young Thug fan is beyond me.

There is simply too much filler between the few good tracks that are here. What should have been a big, blasting album instead started weakly and didn’t get much better over it’s 52 minute runtime. Marred by a big black mark in the form of the terrible “Sahara” it is an album that I’ll be happy to put down.

Tracklist:
1. Intro (A86)
2. Middle (Feat. Bipolar Sunshine)
3. Sahara (Feat. Skrillex)
4. Sober (Feat. JRY)
5. Pigalle (Feat. Moksi)
6. Talk (Feat. George Mapple)
7. Ocho Cinco (Feat. Yellow Claw)
8. The Half (Feat. Jeremih, Young Thug & Swizz Beatz)
9. Oh Me Oh My (Feat. Travi$ Scott, The Migos & G4shi)
10. Propaganda
11. 4 Life (Feat. G4shi)
12. Future Pt 2 (Feat. Bipolar Sunshine)
13. Let Me Love You (Feat. Justin Bieber)
14. Here Comes the Night (Feat. Mr Hudson)

This title was reviewed before the inception of our current review system and as such is not scored. We still stand by the content of our old reviews.

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Tags: Electronic, DJ Snake, EDM