An expansion of his self-titled record last year, Vince Staples plays the tides on the low for his most vulnerable and long-lasting experiences from his hometown on 'Ramona Park Broke My Heart'.
Introspection and deconstruction seem to be the consistent throughline for Vince Staples' records. Stemming from his lengthy debut double record in 2016, the hip-house switch up of his 2017 record, the short but banging 2019 record, and the low-key self-titled record of last year. Vince always stamps some insight on what he speaks about, rather that would be gang violence, party culture, or music consumption. It’s important to note that his deconstruction balances out with an introspective lens, giving them a reality that’s dour but also opens up roads to strike down the flaws within them.
But with the self-titled record put out last year, Vince has focused more on the introspection aspect of his writing even more, bringing more of the focus to himself and how the experiences that he has went through have affected him. Given that he announced two records during the making of the self-titled record last year, the warmer sonic pallete and personal introspective writing we’re some aspects that may definitely slip through in the other record, especially after taking notes of what that self-titled record has to show.
And with that other record, ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’, those expectations definitely showed up even more but in a different flavor. With a focus on west coast bounce on the production and focus on that warm, low-key melodic tunes, it may as well be Vince Staples' most low-key and spare record to date. It essentially extends the thematic introspection of what was covered in the self titled record last year, expanding it further towards Vince’s reflection of himself in the hometown that he lived in for a decade now and how much that first hand experience surrounding his friends dying due to police violence, grasp of success, and his former connections to street gangs have muddled his life in a way that affects his perspective towards that violence, success, and especially with love. It’s not a surprise that this record is analogous to his self-titled record in terms of content and production, where that record feels more internal, this records feels more of those moments of Ramona Park that affected Vince Staples long term. The production for the most part does expand as well, bringing in different producers rather than sticking to Kenny Beats from the past two records, and this summery and low-key scope does magnet some nuggets of good tracks. ‘AYE! (FREE THE HOMIES’ with its spare but thick textures on the beat, ‘DJ QUIK’ with its tempered tones, ‘MAGIC’ and ‘BANG THAT’ with the warm production touches from Mustard, ‘WHEN SPARKS FLY’ with its fuzzy and blurry seams, ‘PAPERCUTS’ with a bit more engaging tone, ‘LEMONADE’ with its stable groove, ‘ROSE STREET’ with the clean trap percussion, and ‘THE BLUES’ with its dreamy guitar strums.
It doesn’t really go the way through, where it can feel like a breeze due to Vince Staple’s toned down performance which makes sense for the themes and production side of things but only makes his presence feel faint than usual, some of the lyrical writing doesn’t cut through especially with ‘Player Ways’, and same goes for some of the melodies and sparse production that can feel like it build up to a waking snap but just doesn’t go anywhere.
It’s tricky, because this record is a wave of muted introspection, cooler and bouncier production touches, and levitating melodies that should work all the way through. But it oddly feels static, where even it makes sense that it extends what the self titled record is about, the low-key aspects lowers that tide, and when Vince’s performance and melodic construction gets more languid, it doesn’t allow the record to engross fully. After these records exploring Vinces’ own life, either from his experiences or from the events that he observed from his own hometown, hope that putting out this release would lead to finding that connection and especially a sense of peace in mind, wherever and whenever that be.
Favorite Tracks: LEMONADE, AYE!(FREE THE HOMIES), MAGIC, WHEN SPARKS FLY, PAPERCUTS, BANG THAT, DJ QUIK, ROSE STREET, THE BLUES
Least Favorite Track: PLAYER WAYS