The Daily Spin, August 7
Metro Boomin | METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (2023)
Artist: Metro Boomin
Link:
Again - before anything else, I have to emphasize how worthwhile it is for anyone and everyone to watch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. I’m not the hugest fan of simping for corporate properties, especially stuff that slides under the Marvel umbrella, even tangentially, but this movie and its prequel are among the finest animated films of our time.
This review will not contain spoilers for the movie - no need to worry.
Remember what I said yesterday, about how excellent film scores go above and beyond to become memorable, ingraining themselves not only in the scenes from the movie, but also in the public memory, songs that apply themselves both within and without context, the type of tune that will swing into mind far beyond the moment you walk out of the theatre?
This album is essentially 18 of those, in one single recording.
Popular rap and trap isn’t always something that grabs me, frankly. I spend a lot of time perusing it but rarely do I feel drawn in by it - if I want something a little heavier or beat-driven I’ll generally pivot to electronica, but the combinations present here absolutely nail so many different moods, all of them perfectly attuned to the film itself. Again, I won’t be spoiling things (though you’ll get some little clips through the ad-libs present), but god.
From that first sleek ascending synth in ‘Annihilate’ through to the powerfully radiant, Clean Bandit-like strings of ‘Am I Dreaming’, the album immediately makes clear that it’s not messing around, some of the finest production I’ve heard this side of Timbaland underlying lyrics that veer into the corny but never to a point of unlistenable. Each song so clearly illustrates a moment within the movie that you’re left feeling a bit stunned at the end of it, and I’ve admittedly come back to the album fairly frequently to relive some of the hype from that first watch-through.
It’s not a perfect album by any means - I think that some of the features just aren’t my thing, and not every song comes back clean, but Boomin’s ability to meld together such a wide collection of artists, ranging from the lofi RnB influenced falsettos of James Blake to the work of 21 Savage - that shit’s really impressive.
I don’t know that this would win an album of the year award for me, but if this isn’t at least in the conversation for awards, then I have to ask what we’re doing, because this is far and away the finest companion album I’ve listened to.
Rating: 9.2/10
Best Tracks: Am I Dreaming; Annihilate; Self Love; Hummingbird
Worst Tracks: All The Way Live