Rating: 2/5
This album has been hyped for months. Travis and Quavo have been so prolific in the past year that a mere breather would have been nice with Astroworld and Culture II on the way. Then again, with memorable link-ups like on ‘Portland’, who wouldn’t want to hear a collaboration between Cactus Jack and Huncho?
The album starts with the track ‘Modern Slavery’, where the duo compares their luxurious lives of fast cars, fancy jewellery and women to the lives of their enslaved forefathers. To some extent, the song seems to be paying homage to Kanye West’s, ‘New Slaves’. In terms of musicality, ‘Modern Slavery’ gets off to a pretty good start with a sample of the great Otis Redding. ‘Cigarettes and Coffee’ really draws the listener in and the chop is a nice transition into a shared hook by Quavo and Travis Scott. The weaving hook works quite nicely in this first track, but why does it sound like Travis Scott is singing into a tin?!
On ‘Eye 2 Eye’, the one who actually stands out is Takeoff because, three songs in, you also start to get tired of hearing the syrupy auto-tune vocals of Trav and Quavo (SOMEONE FIND THE QUAVO FROM ‘ICE TRAY’!!!). ‘Motorcycle Patches’ is well produced, but Supah Mario’s beat deserves better lyricism. The following tracks of ‘Huncho Jack’ and ‘Saint and Go’ are utterly forgettable. The production and the performance of ‘Huncho Jack’ on the second half is slightly better. Suddenly on ‘Saint Laurent Mask’, Quavo and Trav sound like they want to share more personal detail, as the storytelling becomes more candid. ‘Moon Rock’ is of a similar vein with a very nocturnal vibe. ‘Best Friends’ is the closer and it does a perfectly good job at being that. It’s a bit mellow, but that seems to be the aesthetic of this album.
Overall, it feels like an over-saturated album that is badly mixed at times. It may be moody, but it doesn’t really stir any profound emotions. Some songs can be revisited, but the album pales when compared to Without Warning – hopefully Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho isn’t a sign of things to come.
Image Credit: The Come Up Show