Review Summary: morality and honesty
I’ll just warn you right now, I shouldn’t be reviewing this mixtape, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. Obviously, there is an inherent bias to critically assessing a good friend's work, whether it’s for fear of hurting their feelings or being unable to properly compare the project's quality against "professionally" produced music. However, my issue with reviewing this album goes beyond just politeness or sympathy. The fact of the matter is that I saw this project come together, I watched him spit the closing poem, and I was one of the first to hear the album in its entirety. Hell, I even threw together the artwork for the mixtape itself. So why am I telling you all of this instead of attempting to take on this so-called persona of a music reviewer and critically judge this body of work? It’s because, much like NovelT, I value honesty over anything, and in order to stay true to the nature of this mixtape, I’ll be the first to admit my viewpoint and favoritism.
The Odyssey, as its name and song titles would suggest, is a concept album. Every track tells a slice of the story of Odysseus, from the departure from his native island to his triumphant return home. While Jordan Toeller stays true to the accuracy of the epic throughout the tape, this isn’t just a retelling of Odysseus’s adventure. Jordan sees himself as the protagonist and constantly relates his life to the character’s hardships and triumphs. One of the more immediate strengths of this project is its ability to effortlessly weave together storytelling and reality-narrating. Any of these mini-chapters could act as either realistic metaphors or simply just fantasies since sometimes I can’t even tell the difference between the two. A compelling example of this can be found within ‘Poseidon’ which details Odysseus’ stormy and treacherous journey across the god-controlled seas. As the tropical yet ominous beat floats in and out behind NovelT’s confident rapping, the outro sees both Jordan and Odysseus at their most vulnerable: “
someone help me, someone help me ” // “
going down with destiny’s call, despite it all ”. NovelT is at his finest when he blurs this line between the two worlds, putting his storytelling skills on display while constantly keeping his listeners on their toes.
Just like his fearless approach to demonstrating honesty within his lyrics, NovelT isn’t afraid of wearing his influences on his sleeve.
The Odyssey, is eerily similar to Logic’s
The Incredible True Story due to both its conceptual approach and all of the ornamental bells and whistles that come with the project. Yet unlike his contemporary, Jordan is able to strip away the unnecessary pieces, exchanging Logic’s somewhat too on-the-nose skits for subtle page turns and poems that introduce and conclude the album. In addition to this, his flow and delivery feel like a cross between Logic on his laid back tracks, Russ on his viscerally energetic bars, and a bit of Lil Dicky’s humor and charisma thrown in for good measure. Songs like ‘Hades’ and ‘Athena’ showcase this style at its most refined despite all of the passion and grit bubbling beneath the bars. These songs expose NovelT at his most vehement state, featuring some of the hardest hitting bars on the entire album. He even channels his inner Kid Cudi on the track ‘Artemis’ which features a haunting crooned chorus showcasing the lyrics “...
while the moon is out “ that subtly nod to the aforementioned artist. Yet, Jordan isn’t afraid of a bit of experimentation and this proves to work in his favor, especially with ‘Demeter’s’ dissonant guitar riff that is strangely (and accidentally) reminiscent of Brand New’s song ‘Be Gone’. He expands on this indie rock-influenced style on the latter half of ‘Apollo’ which sees him sing-rapping over some sparse, bluesy instrumentation. Despite above average singing performances, on four tracks he looks to his roommate Tyler Maxon (credited as Tiki Bartender) to soulfully belt some of the catchier hooks on the album. This collaboration culminates on the appropriately titled song ‘Aphrodite’ which features gorgeously composed harmonies from Jordan, Tyler and former classmate Chloi Ducharme.
A debut album like this will inevitably have some room for growth and NovelT’s project is no exception to this. This album boasts that it is mostly all self-produced, mixed, and mastered and unfortunately, this is evident within some of these self-made beats. Although the instrumentation shines through in stunning fashion, most notably on the heartful piano and string-based title track, other songs fall victim to the comfort of a formula. It’s pretty clear after a couple songs that most of the beats follow an instrumental sample-into-percussion/bass beat structure. Although NovelT has found a way to vary the tone and style of his songs, he has yet to perfect the art of beat making and production. Yet, it’s not just the repetitive instrumentation that holds this mixtape back but it’s also the untethered songwriting that hurts some otherwise brilliant tracks. ‘Hermes’ is an obvious offender of this as the sung intro wanders around aimlessly, amounting to nothing truly memorable or substantial. Other songs could’ve benefited from some fat trimming, such as shortened outros in order to keep his listener’s attention.
So, now that I’ve attempted to criticize this album as fairly as I possibly can considering the circumstances, it’s time for some more personal thoughts. To me, ‘Hephaestus’ stands out as one of the most enjoyable listens despite Jordan’s lackadaisical flow because I can just
hear how much fun he is having rapping over the funky, cowbell hook beat. For me, it’s easy to picture Jordan spontaneously talking into the mic during the outro with a smile on his face as his friends are trying to hold back laughter in his home studio. On the other side of things, closer ‘Zeus’ features a spoken word poem and the only thing I can think about when listening to it is when Jordan read the poem to me with complete sincerity, asking for guidance and my thoughts on its quality. This isn’t to say that this mixtape is only for those that know him, however, because even without all of this personal interference, this album more than holds it own. It’s abundantly clear for anyone listening to see the effort and heart put into this project; whether it’s within the meticulously thought out lyrics or the small yet meaningful personal touches in the music and production. If you haven’t read or finished The Odyssey I won’t spoil the ending for you, but all I’ll say is that for Jordan Toeller it’s a happy one because he’s knowingly and finally metamorphosed into his own version of Odysseus: NovelT.
