With such a great year for music coming to an end, and people finalizing their favorite albums of the year, it was no surprise that Metro Boomin’s latest album, “HEROES & VILLAINS,” would send people straight back to square one.
It’s been four years since Metro’s debut solo studio album, “NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES,” and fans have been waiting for what Metro had in store next. With “HEROES & VILLAINS,” not only is this album the current best body of work in Metro’s soon to be solo trilogy, but it’s rightfully being argued as one of, if not the best trap album this year.
With a track length of 15 songs (including one bonus song) and a runtime of 48 minutes, listeners were put through a euphoric feeling that an album hasn’t had in a while. The direction Metro took within this album was brilliant. It wasn’t an album where either producer overshined artists, or artists overshined the producer. It’s a fair mix between the two. Though the album is full of the same faces on past Metro projects, it was nice to hear some new artists on here such as Don Toliver, Mustafa, Chris Brown, A$AP Rocky, and John Legend.
The transitions on the album are top tier work. For example, the album starts off with the intro song, “On Time”, which features John Legend and has cameos from both A$AP Rocky & Morgan Freeman, even sampling a speech from Homelander. That song transitions into one of the best tracks on the album, “Superhero (Heroes & Villains).” Future’s performance on that song is classic Future, on top of that a great addition with a melodic Chris Brown being on the back end of the track. Another transition is the song, “Metro Spider” transitioning into “I Can’t Save You (Interlude).” Young Thug’s performance on “Metro Spider” is possibly the best we’ve heard from Young Thug in a while, and the best solo performance on the album. Then the following track, “I Can’t Save You (Interlude)” is just full Future and Don Toliver. It’s a great Future verse, but Don Toliver really stood out on this and you can hear him stepping out of his comfort zone to bring us one heavy hitting track.
Overall, the direction Metro is taking his music in is again, brilliant. He really fits the heroes and villains theme, by basically assembling The Avengers for this album. A great comparison would play out as Metro Boomin is Nick Fury assembling the Avengers, which are the artists, but some of those artists turn to the villainous side. And with no songs deserving of being skipped in a listen of this body of work, it keeps you waiting and ready for what Metro Boomin has in mind for the conclusion of such a trilogy.
