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Never one to shy away from the weird and zany, Portland rapper Aminé always manages to impress on every project he drops in some shape or form. This new album is a follow-up to his 2018 album ONEPOINTFIVE and just a year after the 2020 album Limbo. I was a HUGE fan of ONEPOINTFIVE. That album was stacked with banger after banger. Limbo wasn’t as spectacular, but it still offered a grounded Aminé as he got busy on a more emotional level. Going into this new release, I was curious to see which direction Aminé would take this project. To my surprise, Aminé managed to subvert my expectations and bring something completely new to the table.

There’s no central theme that ties the tracks together, so they’re each standalone. Aminé never liked to describe his projects as albums or mixtapes. As a result, it makes sense that this project is structured more like a loosie mixtape than an actual album. Advertised as an “EPLPMIXTAPEALBUM”, there are 12 tracks total, which hits my sweet spot of 12-15 songs per album. The lone single leading up to the project was “Charmander”. Having nothing to do with the adorable little fire-lizard, “Charmander” received very positive reactions and stirred up the fanbase, leaving them wanting more. Two weeks later, we received just that.

TWOPOINTFIVE starts to go into the hyper-pop space that’s been gaining traction for the past couple of years. It is probably just as random and off-the-wall bonkers as his music videos are. Using the combination of his trademark laid-back bars and energetic instrumentals, the elements complement each other really well. The lyrics have an extra bit of pop and the beat steals the spotlight in between each verse. The tracks are well polished and overall are fairly enjoyable. That isn’t to say there aren’t any weaknesses on the album. There are quite a few.

I found that the most enjoyable tracks were the ones where Aminé channeled the sound he used from the previous two albums. When he decides to veer way too off-field is where some tracks suffer. Without a theme or any message whatsoever, some tracks end up feeling empty. Most of the lyrics are about flexing on haters. There’s only so much flexing that can be done before listeners get bored without an interesting beat to keep them interested. There are still plenty of playlist-worthy tracks, but the album in all honesty is kind of hard to get through in one listen.

The project starts off strong enough with “YipiYay”. The song introduces a recurring narrator and is very flavorful with tropical-sounding instruments. The verses invoke a dancing vibe. The chorus is pretty weak, but the rest of the song is very solid. The 2nd track, “Colors”, is faster and implements a vocal effect over the chorus. This is also the first sighting of Aminé singing on this album. The track is well-composed, each of the verses flows into each other and the chorus doesn’t subtract from the track.

“NEO” makes use of modified trumpets and heavy bass for a pretty boring track. The instruments are so overbearing and add no other variety to Aminé’s already laid-back rapping style. Aminé also displays probably the weakest bars I’ve ever heard him spit on this track. “OKWME” has a more relaxed sound, but there’s a little more variety to contrast Aminé. The track isn’t anything special, but it’s serviceable. The good news is that the first 1/3 of the project also has the 2 biggest duds.

The second 1/3  of the project is a significant upgrade from the 1st. “Dididumduhduh” is a solid flex track. In an odd twist, the beat is laid-back and Aminé is the one injecting energy into the track.  Assisted by background vocals, the track is a subtle bop and cool track to relax to. “Twisted!” sounds just like Colors but without overloading on energy drinks. The song is a lot tamer and relaxing as a result.

The lead single “Charmander” exemplifies everything Aminé wanted to do on this project to the best effect. The hyper-pop beat is unique and Aminé flows over it perfectly. The bars are silly add to the happy dancing vibe this song projects so well. Aminé then channels his inner Black Air Force energy on “Mad Funny Freestyle”. Aminé gets in his bag as he becomes the biggest menace on Earth.

As we approach the end of the album, it feels like we’ve heard everything TWOPOINTFIVE has to offer. That’s only partially true. “Van Gough” is a much better version of “NEO”. The instruments aren’t overbearing and it doesn’t feel like your ears are going to fall off…which is a good thing! “Between The Lines” sounds like a hyper-popped version of a leftover from Limbo. The song has some of the more fleshed-out lyrics and sticks to a storyline.

“Sh!t2Luz” is awful. It sounds like they threw together random sounds together. Imagine if Blue’s Clues, Barney, and the Krusty the Clown made a McDonald’s theme song. It just doesn’t make sense why this was allowed to be on here. The biggest dud is followed up by a decent hyper-pop track to close out the album. Aminé sounds exactly like Playboi Carti on “meant2b”, but after that last track, I desperately needed a palette cleanser. The project as a whole doesn’t come close to stacking up to other projects in Aminé ‘s catalog. It suffers from a lack of any meaning in the lyrics and relentless instrumentals. I was expecting more from a direct follow-up to one of my favorite albums.

Favorite Tracks: Colors, Dididumduhduh, Twisted!, Charmander, Between The Lines, meant2b

Least Favorite: NEO, OKWME, Sh!t2Luz

Thanks for sticking till the end! I’ll be digging through more music coming out in 2021 to find only the hottest of songs. Let us know if there’s an artist or album to watch out for and I’ll take a listen! I’m always willing to discover something new to put on the playlist.

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TWOPOINTFIVE

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• Charismatic and silly
• Nails the uplifting aesthetic
• Unique hyper-pop beats
• Excellent flow variety

Cons

• Overbearing instrumentals on some tracks
• Songs lack direction
• No meaningful lyrics