YUNG MAS – “1997” review

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Final verdict: 5/10 ★★⋆˙⟡☆☆

This is where things get a tiny bit tricky. As expressed in my other review of YUNG MAS’ work (which highlighted a very good song (“loaded”) and one more hit-or-miss piece (“CASHOUT”)), the Greek-Canadian rapper’s work is pretty straight-forward in its ways, while also being very sonically interesting, in ways that appeal to a specific niche as opposed to a wider audience of hip hop enthusiasts. And I suppose that is fun and all – I always love myself an interesting underground act – but where it gets complicated is the rapper’s latest album, the cryptically titled “1997”. Is this a record that is a time capsule to the late 1990s, or is it simply a love letter to that time? Is it the artist’s birth year, or is it the year an event of personal significance to YUNG MAS occurred?

This is a question left unanswered, even after successfully exiting the seemingly unending maze that is this album. For you see – just like with other YUNG MAS songs, the vocals are mixed so far back that the lyrics are entirely unintelligible. I was thus unable to grasp onto any lyrical themes and tropes that could point me in the right direction with regards to truly understanding this album. I’d like to say that I’m perhaps not part of the demographic that would “get it”, but frankly, I’m not convinced there is any demographic that would be able to make complete sense of this album in the way the artist intended.

And that is precisely because apart from the idiosyncratic vocal mixing choices, the music itself is quite difficult for the ear to grasp onto as well. The opening track really had me feeling optimistic – evocative storytelling is a big thing in hip hop albums, in ways much unlike even the greatest concept albums to come out of the rock scene. The drowned out vocals, the abundance of sound effects and the atmospheric synths are telling of a certain mystery, as if a story is about to unfold in all its glory. Needless to say, I was stoked! But by the time track 4 (“MURDA’KEY (pt.2)”) came barging in, the devastating truth started to set in; this album utterly lacks in dynamics, instead opting for being a big wall of sound in which both the intricate sonic elements and the artsy lyricism get lost on the listener. There is no development, no “climax”. And my suspicions were confirmed by the end of the album – the tracks blend together into one big pile of vaguely music-shaped sound. What surely did this album particularly dirty is the abuse of certain samples – particularly the gunshot sound effects and the “I’m sorry, the number you have dialed…” intercept message which is roaming free around every corner of this recording. No one album needs this many “The number you have dialed…” messages. I get it. I can never dial a phone number correctly. I’m sorry. I have fat fingers.

But it is not all as grim as I perhaps make it out to be – I was quite fond of the instrumentals (when I could actually tell what was going on through all the over-compression and over-saturation), especially on track 2 (“gotham”), that sees beautiful twinkly synths taking the lead. If you know me, you’ll have long noticed that I am a huge fan of those suckers! I also have to admit the “HOW MUCH CRACK FITS IN THE AIR FRYER” line opening “BR4CK3T.mp3” cracked me the fuck up in new and inexplicable ways.

Overall though, I have to admit that the intricacies of this album are utterly lost on me. “1997” is overproduced to the point of causing actual, real confusion on the average Joe (which in this case happens to be myself). It feels almost dystopian in a way, or maybe “scary” is the word. I can’t say it’s a bad album per se, but it for sure is one of the most perplexing records I’ve heard in recent times, not necessarily in a good or bad way. What I think YUNG MAS has ought to do is pull his vocal tracks a bit forward (I mean, he’s got the bars – why conceal them in such a sorry manner?) and perhaps use compression with a bit of a lighter hand. Sonic depth is a beautiful thing, certainly, but there comes a point where said depth is so deep that it starts appearing one-dimensional. This album is aggressive, sure, but that aggressiveness could be better conveyed through sparser arrangements. Remember – to make a song sound “big”, you have to layer multiple smaller sounds and make effective use of dynamics. Otherwise it sounds like one big… thing… with no variation or punch.

While a lot of criticism was to be delivered, this album isn’t quite “bad”. I’d say it’s “ragingly neutral”, but God knows what heights it could potentially reach with the correct production and mixing choices. That perhaps is the true question left unanswered, after all. 5/10.