Ken Carson - More Chaos ALBUM REVIEW

Lyrics

Hu-u-um... Hi, everyone. Rockthony Startano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd and it's time for a review of this new Ken Carson album, More Chaos. Here we have the latest full-length LP from rapper and songwriter Mr. Ken Carson, one of the more prominent artists on Playboi Carti's Opium label and by virtue of that, he is kind of automatically one of the most impactful voices when it comes to rage music or what we currently know as this hyper-distorted-repetitive-synthy brand of trap music which has really been taking hip-hop by storm this decade so far. And sure, while still today in the mainstream you have a lot of big names that hold a lot of weight after really building up their brands throughout the 2010s — be it J. Cole or Kendrick or Drake or Future — what Playboi Carti and his musical children here are driving is really a movement. One that is so undeniable many established artists themselves have been trying to figure out ways to get in on it via either features or hopping on similar types of production. And this is happening both in the mainstream and the underground, mind you. So like Ken Carson's music or not, its finger is most definitely on the pulse. Its sound is very right now. However though, I can't really call myself a fan. I have reviewed two of Ken's projects so far and haven't really liked either of them. Though I did think his last, A Great Chaos, was a slight improvement over the preceding X record. A slightly better listen that suffered still from many of the same shortcomings: lack of versatility, boring vocals, boring lyrics, boring production, forgettable everything. Though in a sense I could kind of see what it's going for because here and there some songs do come out of the gate with a certain explosive type of force. Stupidly loud, brash, in-your-face music is always gonna have some kind of draw. And with all of Ken's allusions to wearing all black and being a rock star and packing his songs with so much distortion, there's a bit of edginess there. The itch it's trying to scratch is very clear and very obvious. I just personally don't think it's doing it that well as there's also a lot of industrial hip-hop out there today that is way more in-your-face and aggressive. There are other rap artists that in a more genuine and exciting way combine elements of hip-hop and rock. There's more comparisons I could make but I don't want to deny this album, the points of appeal that it does have. Because out of the context of this 21-song tracklist, some tracks here and there do actually have an exciting feel to them. Be it the song "Xposed" which is so distorted and so blown out that the percussion synths and 808's all have this kind of splotchy texture to them. The whole track just feels like being hit with a tidal wave of noise. There's also "Liveleak" whose sound is just overpowering. Every perk and synth and hit of bass is just fried in the mix. And I do like how confident Ken Carson comes across vocally on this track, too. He just sounds very steady in the midst of all of this chaos. Plus there's a sick beat switch on the second half of the track, too. And then on "Naked", the bass compression on this track is so insane. The lowend on this track just comes through really heavy. So, yeah, sometimes it is impressive how far Ken and his collaborators will go to make these songs sound so abrasive and so distorted and so nasty. But by that same token, these moves leave Ken very little room on this record to grow or experiment or do anything exciting or new. I mean, on some level it does feel like he broadcast that right out of the gate with the title of this album. He is in fact giving us more chaos right after delivering a great chaos. He might as well have titled this album More of the Same. So yeah, this record is not a lyrical experience obviously. Though I will say here and there, Ken does seem to be putting in a little more effort when it comes to wearing his personality on his sleeve with these tracks. Either on songs like "2000" which are loaded with lots of outlandish proclamations and flexes or random bars about women who he's with that inadvertently come across as really cute. Compliment her hair, I told her, "I had the same color" Me and my bitch on the same shit, we complement each other However this is not to distract from the many more incalculable amounts of bars that actually come across as really toxic and self-obsessed and narcissistic or even on some level dumb. I had that lil' ho, huh, singin' like She the performer and my dick the mic Stuff like this I think would go down a little bit easier if Ken Carson had a bit more charisma or presence on the microphone. But in fact, much of the time on this record, not only does he sound very dime a dozen and average, nondescript even, and his attitude on these tracks just comes across too aloof and nonchalant and too cool to care for him to do anything else. On some level you could say he's like Playboi Carti clone, something like that. But I feel like even that would be giving him too much credit. 'Cause at least Carti has a bit of a history with vocally being a chameleon, switching up his flows a lot. Meanwhile, Ken more or less just operates in one single gear across this record. And when he does attempt something in the tracklist here that goes in a direction that is a bit lighter or more anthemic — like with the little melodic background vocals on the song "Kryptonite" — it often comes across as basic, uninspired and bland. But yeah, also like I said on tracks that are clearly not trying to go quite as hard, "200 Kash" [or] "Down2Earth", for example, the extra space around Ken's voice definitely feels like a veil being pulled off. And there's not quite as much chaos going on. And as a result, you're just hearing some random dude ramble across a very boring and uninteresting instrumental. So, yeah. To be honest when this album is working, the production and autotune are doing a whole lot of the work. Not to mention that when More Chaos is successful, it's just merely successful at coloring within lines and boundaries that were laid out beforehand. And, sure, while these are lines that Ken himself helped establish with his own music, and I also understand there's like no real pressure for him to change given how in demand this sound is right now, I still don't feel like that's any excuse for him to have a total lack of ambition on this LP. Like not only is it the sound of stagnation but he's just not really pushing the envelope for rage music in any way here. And like I said, obviously don't go into this record expecting anything lyrical. I certainly didn't. But also on top of that, I feel like at the very least you should be able to write a hook and Ken Carson can't really do that to save his life. As many of these tracks here, especially the ones that go over a few minutes, just kinda feel like these completely directionless rambles with no real flow or ultimate destination, very few of the flows on this thing are gripping, are memorable, and the sequencing on this LP leaves a lot to be desired too. I don't really think Ken put a whole lot of thought into how all of these songs sound together outside of a couple of pretty cool segues that bring us very quickly from one track to another here and there. But yeah, the overall experience of this album, it just becomes this mind-numbing slog by the time you're a third of the way into it, if that. Which is why I'm feeling a light to decent three on this thing. Tran— [Outro] —sition. Have you given this album a listen? Did you love it? Did you hate it? What would you rate it? You're the best. You're the best. What should I review next? Hit the like if you like. Please subscribe and please don't cry. Hit the bell as well. Over here next to my head is another video that you can check out. Hit that up with the link to subscribe to the channel. Anthony Fantano, Ken Carson, forever!