Larry June came out with his highly anticipated new album Friday, Spaceships on the Blade, and the wait was most definitely worthwhile. Ever since June teamed forces with Jay Worthy for the collaboration album, 2 P’s in a Pod. You may know him for “Watering My Plants” or “Smoothies in 1991” or even his feature on the Joey Bada$$ song “One of Us.” This album definitely had its highs along with its lows, but overall, I’d recommend this album for Hip-Hop/R&B lovers because of its production and lyricism.

First, the production on this album is admirable. Spaceships on the Blade was produced by a handful of producers, one of them being The Alchemist, known for projects such as “E. Coli” featuring Earl Sweatshirt and “Something to Rap About” featuring Tyler, The Creator. The Alchemist has a very unique approach to production, and you can tell their sense of production style, as compared to Kanye West’s production style. Just as West has a style which his fans recognize, and even though The Alchemist isn’t as well known, they also have a distinguishable production method. They bring this style of production to the 14th track out of the 20 tracks on the album, Breakfast in Monaco, which is one of my favorite songs from the album. 

The order of the tracklist just makes sense. It begins with a song backed up by a violin beat, and seamlessly transitions into the next track to where you don’t even realize the second song has begun. I didn’t find the songs going from one theme to another while exploring the feel of the vibe, but even so, I thought they were placed in such a way that is coherent.

With the vocals harmonizing in the background, and the funky-electro/pop type production, Another Day, Pt. 2 might also fall on my favorites list pertaining to this album. It’s unlike the other tracks, which is a good thing, because too much repetition is quite frankly unappealing. 

While I think this album is good, it does fluctuate sometimes in repetition in terms of how it sounds, as some of the songs that I listened to sounded too much like the others, and they just didn’t pop out as they should. For example, “I’m Him”, “Don’t Check Me”, and “I’ll Make Time” aren’t necessarily bad songs, per se, but they aren’t that memorable as some of the other tracks, as they just sound the same to me.

June overcomes this obstacle, though, through songs like “Still Booming” featuring 2 Chainz (known for “Champions” and “X”) and “For Tonight” featuring Syd (known for “When Love’s Around”) as well as “Spaceships & Orange Juice”. While the songs sound nice for sure, it’s the lyrics that stand out the most from all of the songs for me. 

It was a project full of experimentation while staying true to who Larry June is as an artist. He’s not an artist you would necessarily get confused with some other artists, which is what the music industry needs right now. Original, memorable music. This album, I think does a decent job at attaining this, because its “highs” are definitely recognizable, forgiving for where the album lacks in it’s “not-as-memorable” songs. June did not disappoint as I give Spaceships on the Blade a 7.6/10, and I think anyone looking for something new to listen to should give this avant-garde a chance.