Over the course of his career, you could generally tell what to expect when Jack Harlow released an album. You could get some smooth beats with even smoother bars, exploring themes anywhere from the women he chooses to spend time with (and how many) to the darker aspects of interpersonal relationships.
Monica has significantly shifted that narrative. Jack’s fourth studio album is very different from his other work, including his albums, mixtapes, and EPs released since 2015. This time around, he chose to stick closer to the R&B side of things rather than pure hip-hop. The results? Entirely up to the listener.
Monica opens with the track Trade Places, which immediately sets up the vibe for the rest of the album. He didn’t want this album to be an experiment in trying something new. Rather, he wanted to make it a transition into another side of him. It shouldn’t be a surprise if Jack’s next album is the same style.
It’s interesting to note that on Spotify, almost all the songs on the album decline in streams as the tracklist plays out, suggesting people grew a bit fatigued with the style before even finishing the record. Only the first two songs have broken one million streams as of the fourth day of being public.
Jack uses low basslines and hand-crafted instrumentals to ease his way through the tracks, and he opts to sing much more than he has before. It’s never been a secret that Jack can bring the groove into his tracks, but this time he really stretched his legs.
Think back to Come Home the Kids Miss You, where he embraced R&B on tracks like Side Piece and Lil Secret, while still letting the raps fly over the music. Monica brings the groove, but this time, chooses to leave the raps at the door.
In fact, Jack doesn’t rap at all on Monica. He sat down with Popcast and said he had four rules for making the album: no curse words, no digital instruments (except drums), no braggadocio, and, finally, no rapping.
I was still pretty surprised to hear that this was not a rap album in the slightest, but when he does pick up the pace in his lyrics, he sees it as “melodic rapping” rather than outright rap music.
The thing is, Jack isn’t a singer, and for his lack of experience there, he still does a good job. Having James Savage sing on Move Along shows a bit of a rift between their talents, but Jack is able to pull out some impressive vocals over the course of the album.
He commits to a deep and somewhat sultry voice that fans won’t be unfamiliar with in the slightest. He’s made the point that in his other music, it’s intentional to have every syllable of every word be audible to get his point of view across, but this time, he wanted to serve as another instrument in the ensemble.
Interestingly, because all the songs on the album share that slow, mellow bassline, they sort of blend together. This is generally something that I like in an album because it feels continuous, but Monica didn’t quite feel that way.
It felt like many of the songs don’t stand out from each other, and the whole album just sounds like 28 minutes of R&B. Once you hear Trade Places, you’ll know what to expect from Move Along and Say Hello.
While Monica is by no means a bad album, it’s a departure from what is generally expected of Jack Harlow. He has explained that he chose to lean more into what he sees as his identity, rather than trying to fit himself into the mold that’s been created for him. A respectable choice, but it’s one that can be dangerous for an artist depending on the execution.
Sometimes, it’s not a bad thing to change things up like that. Think of Post Malone: the identity that he’s created for himself over the past few years is vastly different than what’s come to be expected from him on albums like Stoney and beerbongs & bentleys. If you liked those albums for the genre and style, you really might find yourself struggling to listen to F-1 Trillion.
However, in Post’s case, the transition was quite drawn out. He didn’t jump right from Wow. to Wrong Ones, but rather started to slow down a bit on Twelve Carat Toothache, kept that trend going on AUSTIN, and then once it became clear that he was starting to explore country music, fully leaned in and embraced it on F-1 Trillion. He’d earned his chops as a country singer by that point.
Jack Harlow chose to make the transition a bit more abrupt. His last single with Doja Cat, Just Us, was the last thing he’ve heard from him, before he suddenly jumped into something slower and more toned down. In his conversation with Popcast, he further explained that he wasn’t just looking to make any change, as other white rappers did, by turning to sounds that were sonically whiter, such as country or rock. Instead, he leaned further into the “blackness” of his music, not to appropriate black culture, but to pursue a sonic experience that speaks to him and his own preference.
When I judge an album, one of the main metrics I use is how many songs I want to add to my daily rotation. I’ve got a few different playlists, each with a different vibe, so I have something to listen to that matches my mood. Unfortunately, none of the songs on Monica made me want to add them to any of my playlists on the first listen. Instead, it took about three full listens to realize that I could just throw the whole album onto my most relaxed playlist, with the rest of my R&B.
For a rapper who’s often talked about performing in front of sold-out arenas (venues that I’ve seen him perform at on multiple occasions), Monica doesn’t feel like the kind of album you’d listen to in that context. To relate it to the language Jack himself used on Lovin’ On Me, everybody would rather be in the suite kicking up their feet, rather than standing up to dance.
However, that’s not to say he couldn’t tour for Monica; he would simply have to adjust his approach. Rather than focusing on sold-out arenas, this music would be better suited for a more intimate setting.
Jack could perform it in front of a few hundred (or fewer) people rather than a few thousand. Maybe he could hit up a smoky jazz bar in New York City rather than the Barclays Center, because this music simply wouldn’t travel throughout an arena quite the same as his previous hits.
To sum it up, Monica feels better suited to high-quality noise-cancelling headphones than to blasting from your car speakers. It’s certainly a shift in direction, but not one that’s unwelcome.
It was just a bit unexpected compared to what we’ve gotten from him in the past, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to stick by him and see what comes next.
Monica Tracklist
- Trade Places
- Lonesome
- Prague
- My Winter
- Move Along
- All Of My Friends
- Living Alone
- Against The Grain
- Say Hello