It’s a bland trap cut that Scott sleepwalks through, that doesn’t have any of the swagger, the fire that made Scott a known entity. You feel Scott’s presence.įor juxtaposition, listen to “biebs in the trap”. The “brr brr” ad libs and the hyperactive bass and the little references to real-life places (which passes for intimacy in the Travis Scott realm) make the song feel more lived-in than many of the album’s lesser cuts. That would be pointless praise (see: modern Eminem) if the song as a whole wasn’t also one of the most musically interesting of the album. Goaded by a typically fantastic Kendrick Lamar guest appearance, Scott drops one of the best technical verses of his career.
“goosebumps”, a trap-flavored cut that easily could have devolved into sad rap and nothing-isms, is instead graced with a unique La Flare flow. “through the late night” is a microcosm of Birds as a whole in that Birds peaks when a talented guest is lighting a fire under Scott to keep him on track. Cudi sounds like he’s been listening to Days Before Rodeo’s “Skyfall”, which is fascinating since when Scott first arrived on the scene (and still to this day), people accused him, not always incorrectly, of ripping from Cudi. Heavily autotuned, Cudi sings the chorus through moans and hums, and when it feels like the chorus is just turning into a verse, the vocals instead ramp up, intensifying for a few more bars. You can still see traces of that indulgence, like in the standout “through the late night”, where Scott brings in his musical father, Kid Cudi. The extended breakdowns and cinematic outros have been trimmed in favor of compact, straight to the point tracks. Birds is a 14 song, 54-minute affair, and it’s far less extravagant than its predecessor. Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight sees Travis Scott trading in the vibrant layers of Rodeo for relatively muted colors, emphasis on relatively. “3500” was the maximum of the maximalist Rodeo, but the rest of the album was still packed with instruments, vocal effects, production wizardry from Mike Dean, and creative beat breakdowns.
That song is seven minutes and forty-one seconds of Scott, Future and 2 Chainz (spazzing, slurring, and spitting, respectively) over a densely packed beat featuring disembodied gothic vocalization over a thick Yeezus-inspired synth line over a string patch over a xylophone and bell melody over a ’70s rock guitar riff over sharp snares and an 808 and kick pairing, and at the end of the song, it all melts into a Houston-style slurry of a melody, a plinking synth meandering up and down the spectrum. He has also been a maximalist – think “3500” from his excellent and overflowing debut, Rodeo. He is an expert mood curator, gracing only the most prime of instrumentals (and tweaking the lesser ones until they’re right), placing guests in the perfect environment, using smoke machines and neon lights to frame his signature mysterious and angst-dripping sound.
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