by Patton Engel | August 25, 2020 9:29 am
Chicago native Juice Wrld released his third studio album, also his first posthumous album, Legends Never Die. Following his untimely death on December 8th, 2019, just 6 days after his birthday, Juice appeared as a feature on select artists’ songs before his estate began his album rollout with the song “Righteous,” released on April 24th. Following this, the songs “Tell Me U Luv Me,” “Life’s a Mess” featuring Halsey, and “Come & Go” featuring Marshmello came out in anticipation for the July 10th release date of his posthumous album. The album would release with 21 songs, four of which are interludes, with new features from artists Polo G and The Kid Laroi.
Juice Wrld’s estate made sure that this album would bring a familiar feeling for Juice’s fans. A majority of the songs selected here have that familiar upbeat sound that so many know, despite there being a stark contrast with the lyrical content. Juice focuses extra heavily on the effect of anxiety and drugs on his life, as well as his fear of death, a topic that is frankly difficult to listen to. Songs like “Blood On My Jeans,” “Man of the Year,” “Tell Me U Luv Me,” and “I Want It” have Juice describing how he tries to balance his relationship with his girlfriend and the drugs and how he feels he’s cheating on the drugs despite the music maintaining an upbeat feeling.
“Man of the Year” in particular is depressing because, while Juice acknowledges he has helped people get over their own addiction, he can’t seem to make it past his own ups and downs.
Juice also has a constant theme of death and the devil as well, which is featured on songs such as “Come & Go” and “Conversations.” Juice talks about how death in his life leads to him relapsing and how he feels his own death is right around the corner.
Overall, Juice’s ideas on this album are heartbreaking to listen to because it comes across as a cry for help that wasn’t answered. The collaborations on this album were sparse but very well done. Polo G and The Kid Laroi in particular brought two excellent verses to accompany Juice’s addictive hook on “Hate the Other Side.”
The final pieces of this album were the interludes that further the feeling of heartbreak. The most influential one to me was the outro “Juice Wrld Speaks from Heaven,” which has an audio clip of Juice Wrld on Instagram Live saying he feels like he’s in heaven but that, “the party never ends.”
Overall, Juice’s album contains very similar lyrical content, but each song still feels unique based on the beat and the mood Juice creates with his mixture of melodies and rapping. As previously mentioned, the songs chosen on Legends Never Die were safe choices. It continues on the same road as his other projects but does feel more polished.
The only real issue is the balance when it came to Juice’s lyrics. Many of these songs would have done well on their own but feel dragged down on this project because so many songs sound so similar. Thankfully that doesn’t take too much away from the enjoyment of the songs, but some certainly could have been taken off.
To be honest, it feels like Juice’s estate made sure the songs on this album would feel similar to Juice’s other work to ensure success, and although it may have taken away from the album overall, it worked on a commercial level. Juice Wrld sold 508,000 copies the first week, by far his most successful. The album reached number 1 on the Billboard 200, and the songs “Come & Go,” “Wishing Well,” “Conversations,” “Life’s a Mess,” and “Hate the Other Side” all landed in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at two, five, seven, nine, and ten, respectively.
To put it simply, if you enjoyed Juice Wrld’s work before this album, you will likely enjoy Legends Never Die. If you didn’t find yourself liking much of Juice Wrld’s songs before this album, nothing here will change your mind. With a catalog of over 2,000 songs, it will be interesting to see what Juice’s estate chooses to do as they craft another posthumous album.
Highlights: “Hate the Other Side,” “Conversations,” “Stay High,” “Come & Go,” “Wishing Well,” “Man of the Year,” “Can’t Die,” “Up Up and Away”
Overall: 7.5/10
Source URL: https://antler.express/4794/entertainment/legends-never-die-review/
Copyright ©2024 Antler Express unless otherwise noted.