I didn’t know much about Roy Woods until just recently. I’ll admit it. A good friend turned me onto this (yes, you, Neelesh) and said ‘who better than the genius behind The Neel Show?!‘

I must also admit I listen to things at least 4 times before I form any opinions. Below is my review of Roy Woods’ new EP Nocturnal and please feel free to disagree and maybe even teach me something new. Life wins when you stop learning.

Magic –

He starts the song chanting about his new crew and his old crew, OVO and UTU. I had to look up what UTU was too.

Right off the bat we have a very OVO track. Someone’s crooning. There’s a light, airy, atmospheric pad accompanied by some percussion and booming 808s. Safe to say that the Toronto sound is a very real thing you can hear all around the music scene these days. But where does this track go? Nowhere really.

He croons about making it from nothing and how he has now ‘made it’. Making it can be a really cool thing. There’s always a good story to be told and I personally fall in love with those stories that detail the process.. but this track was lackluster. It’s almost as if he meant for it be very catchy but it just wasn’t no matter how many times he told us ‘I be doing me on the daily’. His voice is nice but the lyricism is very weak. I don’t get mad that he made it but I’m just disappointed because I really don’t know the work he put in because he never mentions it.

Best part – Him primally growling towards the end of the track. That’s the only part that felt real.

Four Seasons –

Another song about how he has made it and is providing for his family. The acoustic guitar trap beat is cool but since it’s lacking in the melody department it forces Woods to get more sing songy like his label mate Aubrey. He drops some names on this one(PARTYNEXTDOOR) and raps a little bit too. Finally some substance! Maybe the track title alludes to the life of being on the road and bouncing from one hotel to the next?

Best part – The beat and the open ended realization ‘man this life aint no vacation’

Chili Peppers –

Woods gets Majid Jordan on the track and to be honest it is very hard to tell who is singing when. According to rapgenius they sing together intermittently on the track.

At least the hook on here is redeeming but with all the RHCP references a guitar track or some real bass would’ve been great and a good play on word that I could actually appreciate. I’m sure John Frusciante would’ve played a dope solo over the top of this. He’s already doing electro music anyway.

Best part – The hook ain’t too bad. Majid Jordan helps this track a lot.

Involved – 

Not much on this one. The beat is kinda boring. It’s as if these were beats inspired by Drake or incomplete ideas he passed on because the beats themselves don’t carry much melody. By doing that they force Woods to come up with the melodies but he just doesn’t. Makes me appreciate Drake throwing 5425 catchy melodies on each song he does even if he doesn’t write them himself. Could also do without the weird outro of his voice pitched up.

Best part – I guess him making some uber reference that precedes the track with Madeintyo is kind of cool?

Instinct –

Again very hard to hear the feature on this track but at least MadeinTYO has his own verse and his sounds fits with Roy Woods’. The hook is pretty lame and not very creative.

Best part – The MadeinTYO verse.

Love You –

Kinda lame track about a girl he wants to love. He asks obscene/cringy questions like this poetic excerpt:

Naked
Does he make love while you’re naked?
Do you never let him taste it?
Does he fuck you like he loves you?
Treat you good like a man should
Does he bathe in the shower for you?
Does he do the things that I do?
Does he tell you that I want you?

Maybe a love song should you know.. say endearing things on it? Start with you’re pretty maybe?

Dangerous –

I hate to say this but I’m really glad we are on the last track. This one isn’t so bad. He has a nice flow throughout the track. There isn’t too much going on to take away but there also isn’t much going on to plant this one in my brain similar to a One Dance or Not Nice. Lyrics are entry level at best. Musically I’m bored, man. This whole song is a glorified Gmajor triad that he tip toes cautiously around and doesn’t veer too off from. A vocal run would’ve been great

FINAL THOUGHTS

This guy isn’t bad. He’s obviously good enough to get 40 and Drake’s attention. Maybe he will be one of those quantity over quality artists that we seem to be getting a lot of these days. Maybe he didn’t want too much help from his label founders. Maybe he thought this really sounded good. Maybe he’s young and he’s going to grow into something much more artistic later on. Hopefully that one is it.

This reminded me a lot of the PND3 album we got. Less hype but about the same lack of creativity. I’ll end this with a tennis reference cause why not: He swung for the ball and made contact but didn’t follow through with his swing resulting in a ball that just barely cleared the net.

3/10