The Listening Room

Love this album so so so much. Didn’t it win a Grammy for best hip hop album? Your intro is a great summary of why.

Back from Japan. Hawaii has been getting hammered by rain. Ready for a little Flower Boy to brighten things up.

My main takeaway from Flower Boy is how meticulously crafted it is. The lyrics, the songwriting, the sequencing, the song production, the transitions between songs, the production. Everything is created with so much intention. Emotionally it feels like an album of a fearful romantic. The beautiful bits have those early love vibes. They're so often tinged with skepticism and self-loathing. It definitely feels like a coming of age album. The depth in the sounds is what always brings me back. There's just so much to hear on this album. The instrumentation and orchestration are mindblowing. And there's clearly a ton of self-editing. Silence and space play a surprising role with so much going on. Great pick for No Skips. This one always demands a front-to-back listen for me.