Pitchfork: MONTERO

[COOOK 76,405]

   7.1

"On his melodious debut album, the pop-rap icon flaunts his verve and star power, all while a sense of isolation lives at the music’s brighter edges."

Spoiler

"Nas maneuvers through different genres in an attempt to unload some of his heavier baggage: A fractured family life and lingering self-doubt from spending most of his years in the closet weigh on the 22-year-old’s mind. He wants you to know he’s been smoking himself to sleep. Even when he’s singing to the rafters, he’s sad as hell."

"For an artist capable of gleefully reducing online trolls to dust with a single tweet, his anguish is revealing though not altogether surprising. Lil Nas X has discussed his struggles living in the public eye before. “The idea of ‘He’s a cool gay person; he’s an acceptable gay person,’ I used to see things like that as a compliment, but it’s not,” he told Variety. “I wanted to be even more authentic in my music and let people into my life.” MONTERO pries open that door through angsty pop-punk, introspective guitar ballads, and brash pop-rap, making for a mostly filler-free, engaging album that doesn’t seem to reveal the true soul of Lil Nas X, but certainly comes close."

"The hopeful ending is in line with Nas’ vision—this is the same guy who made a supercut of his videos in the garish style of Marvel movies, after all. Yet even with occasional missteps, the album fulfills the promise of a new kind of pop star: an out, Black rapper and singer who combines his omnivorous, genre-hopping music, forthright lyrics, and social media savvy to triumph in an industry that threatened his authenticity from the jump. His music is still radio-primed to work well beside Olivia Rodrigo’s pop-punk or Doja’s earworm rap, but he’s using both his music and celebrity to carve out a unique space explicitly for queer people who feel as alone as he did growing up and emphatically insisting on a better future. With MONTERO, he’s already building it for them."

Full review here.

Previous scores:

  4.3

[Ororo Munroe 59,532]

deserved score! great debut album! 

[DekiDopa 305]

2 hours ago, COOOK said:

"On his melodious debut album the pop-rap icon 

 

Stopped reading here

[Hades 27,980]

Yeah i'd say 7 is pretty accurate. Solid debut.