Review Summary: Good vibes, rogue choices, and mixed feelings.
Danny made his name being a madman who loved partying, getting messed up on drugs and ***ing anything with legs, but also showing the dark side of that lifestyle too. Importantly, in the last few years Danny has gone through rehab and is now sober. Over the last year, he has started collaborating with a bunch of artists in the hyperpop and altpop/electronic scene, such as Quadeca, Underscores and Jane Remover, who all feature on this album.
Now there’s a whole lot to unpack there – firstly, Danny credits this sound to helping reignite his passion for music when he needed it during rehab, citing the storytelling and experimental nature of these artists. And Danny really throws himself headfirst into that style here, this isn’t just paying homage to these artists, but an attempt to immerse himself in this style and curate his own version of it with his collaborators.It’s also worth saying that the majority of the guest artist Danny features on this album are trans or queer, and that’s really cool of Danny to give them that spotlight. We’re a long way removed from the days of DMX’s Where The Hood At, but still Danny has always been a super liberal, progressive guy on this type of stuff.
But Danny is no stranger to collaborating with experimental pop music and beats – his 2013 album Old had features from the likes of Purity Ring and pre-blow-up Charli XCX and saw him rapping over super high energy, clubby, electro-y beats. However that album was an album punctuated by tracks about him doing molly, getting wasted, substance abuse and being a general menace, so I can see how we would still want to do a similar sounding album to that, but with songs and themes that resonate more with where he is now in life.
Another layer to this, is that this is apparently a concept album about a semi-autobiographical avatar Danny has created called Dusty Star, who’s journey mirrors Danny’s own with a rise and fall, but honestly it’s a very loose concept and if I hadn’t read this on Wikipedia, I wouldn’t have known it as the song-writing mirrors Danny’s own experience so much it doesn’t mean much apart from maybe giving Danny the separation needed for him to be so honest.
So – that’s a whole lot of background and context, its important context to frame this album because I think how much someone enjoys this album is really going to hinge on how much you enjoy this hyper-digital pop style, and how much investment you have in Danny’s journey.
Reflecting on this album, I came to 3 main outcomes:
1) The production and beats are generally pretty damn good. There are some lesser beats and it’s a mixed bag, and I wouldn’t say these are the best beats Danny’s had, but the highlights on this album all have either killer, crazy beats, or really lush, gorgeous production from Quadeca. The production is probably the most out there and memorable aspect of the record.
2) Unfortunately, the guest vocals are universally not great. They range from fine to outright jarring and never once did I feel like the vocal guest spot was really adding to or a highlight of a track. Again, noble of Danny to collaborate with many of these artists, but I left kinda wishing most of them had just stayed behind the booth.
3) Danny himself is at his best here when he is being grateful and earnest, such as the tracks at the beginning and end of the album. He’s never shyed away from cutting himself open and bleeding over a song, and those make for some of the best and most compelling moments here. The flip-side of this is that is probably his least funny and entertaining rapping to date. That’s not to say I want him to go back to rapping about his old party *** if that’s not where he is, but there’s simply less memorably bars and the times he writes about more conventional themes result in some of his most forgettable song-writing unfortunately. I found it lacking in the witty or thoughtful observations – there’s nothing on here like Jenn’s Terrific Vacation for example.
I really struggled to come to an easy conclusion on this one. The overall creative direction of the album, while I respect it, isn’t one I am particularly into, and there’s plenty of moment and tracks on this I didn’t really enjoy. Kinda felt at times like the execution wasn’t meeting the ambition. There’s a lot to unpack from the artist direction, the choice of collaborators, the song writing and so on. But on the other hand, there was a solid handful of tracks, mainly at the front and the back, here that I will be listening to for a long time, I enjoyed the feelgood vibes. Danny himself is so compelling at points and is such a creative, and some of his tracks here are so earnest, that its impossible not to root for him. And when the closer rolled, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel something - I was just really happy to hear Danny being happy and healthy. And if an album can make you
feel something, that goes a long way to overcoming some of the individual moments or tracks that didn't land.
