Entertainment

Logic’s “Supermarket” seems bare

Sometimes artists shouldn’t crossover genres just because they can.

Logic’s new surprise album “Supermarket,” a soundtrack released alongside his New York Times Bestselling book of the same name, is the latest example of hip hop artists trying to go indie, alternative or rock.

Unlike Logic’s book, his album isn’t being received as highly — even though it reached No. 6 on the Billboard Alternative Album chart the week of April 1.

Pitchfork gave the album a 2.9 out of 10 and Rolling Stone magazine gave it one and a half stars.

The album has 13 tracks and runs 49 minutes long.

Instead of providing the world with more boom bap and sick beats or clever lyrics, Logic created a generic coffee-shop styled album featuring an acoustic guitar, flat vocals and somewhat obvious homages to sounds of the early 2000’s.

While the album inherently isn’t bad, it isn’t exactly good, and part of the problem is it came riding the coattails of two quality singles.

Singles “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and “Keanu Reeves,” led to an expectation of an album built around these two tracks, but instead received a transition of genres and a really disappointing soundtrack.

Starting the soundtrack is the song “Bohemian Trapsody,” but the track has nothing to do with Queen or trap music.

Instead the song features a basic up beat four-chord melody and slightly auto tuned vocals about smoking, falling in love and tearing down our walls to open to those we love.

The song then grows in speed and transitions into traditional Logic, featuring an R&B-esque beat and smooth flowing rap followed by a guitar pedal outro.

This then leads into the track “Can I kick it” featuring upcoming singer-songwriter, Juto.

Juto’s voice is a very needed breath of fresh air compared to Logic’s flat, limited range vocals. Logic also comes onto this album with more flow and rap aesthetic than all out singing.

However, the songs cords are basic, and the lyrics of the song are pretty cringe worthy.

With lyrics such as “ay it’s the Bobby boy, better known as chocolate and vanilla” it shows Logic’s inability to make a song that doesn’t constantly remind listeners that he is bi-racial.

After “Can I kick it” the album goes into two forgettable and bad songs, “Time Machine” and “Pretty young girl,” the latter being better despite its horrible chorus.

The album then takes a slightly better upturn with the track “Supermarket.”

This track is about a grocery store clerk infatuated with a girl.

The lines in the song are disturbing though.

“I’m a weirdo, I’m a freak. I wish I could watch you when you sleep,” is just one example, however it highlights the crazy and creepy acts or thoughts many people do when they’re falling for someone.

The following song “Baby” is more of an extension of the track “Supermarket” assuming that he has spoken to the girl he likes. The song’s contents are that she only wants a friend and him wishing/ trying to convince her that he is worth more than friendship.

In the song he describes how she is better than a basic 9 to 5 lifestyle and that he wants to be there to build her up and remind her how great she is when she feels down.

I believe this song highlights Logic’s personal pursuit of an unnamed woman in his love life, after finalizing his divorce from Jessica Andrea, his wife of two years, last fall.

The next track “By the Bridge” a song that reminds me of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s (RHCP) song “Under the Bridge.”

In Logic’s song, he discusses the world’s beauty but how we search for meaning inside us, worried that if we don’t find it, we will be alone potentially leading to suicide. This is like the RHCP song which talks about loneliness.

During the creation of “Under the Bridge” Anthony Kiedis, RHCP’s lead vocalist, wrote the song when he was feeling alienated by his band and friends during his struggle with sobriety.

Following this track is “Best Friend” a song that has a 70’s like guitar strum and short verses about the love of his life being in front of him the entire time.

Next is “Lemon Drop” arguably the worst song on the album. This even further displays Logic’s influence by RHCP by sounding just like a nuclear hybrid of “Get on Top” and “Suck my Kiss.”

Logic shamelessly throws in another Rick and Morty shout out with the line “Rick Sanchez, get schwifty.” He then later uses the line “my spaceship is empty” referencing Rick’s spaceship and his previous Rick and Morty shout out on his track “Grandpa’s Spaceship” on one of his 2018 albums.

After “Lemon Drop” the album gets more and more forgettable despite not being as horrible but with a track title of “I’m Probably Gonna Rock Your World,” it comes pretty close.