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By Olivia Malek<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have been a Jon Bellion fan since I was a freshman in high school, back when his mixtape, <\/span>The Definition<\/span><\/i>, was his only music on Spotify. So when I heard <\/span>Glory Sound Prep<\/span><\/i> was being released, I was thrilled. He hadn\u2019t released any new music since his debut album <\/span>The Human Condition<\/span><\/i> in 2016, which followed his style of alternative R&B that\u2019s heavily laced with pop and sprinkled with some hip-hop and rap, and I was excited to get more of his unique genre-mixing music. The album is stacked with great features and was announced with a Pixar-animated trailer. Not only that, Bellion had been absent from social media for the nine months leading up to the release of this album, so safe to say, I had high expectations<\/span><\/p>\n Listening to <\/span>Glory Sound Prep<\/span><\/i> for the first time definitely took me for a trip. This album leans much more towards pop than any of his other music and it is a very heavily produced album. One of Bellion\u2019s strengths as an artist is his voice, and one of my big disappointments of this album is that the production at times distracts or detracts from the vocals. For example, in the pre-chorus of the song \u201cCouples Retreat,\u201d the production causes his voice to cut out almost like he\u2019s on the phone and losing service. It\u2019s jolting and not pleasant to the ear. He\u2019s also a great lyricist, and there are some songs in the album that repeat lyrics when there was room to write different ones. However, he showcases his rap ability a lot more on this album with the songs \u201cAdult Swim\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Begin,\u201d which has some really unique lyricism that you don\u2019t often see in rap. Additionally, a lot of Bellion\u2019s music is also really fun, however, this album seems to take on a more experimental side to his music, making it less accessible or engaging to people not already familiar with his music.<\/span><\/p>\n All this being said, there are some songs I really enjoyed on this album, because they really tie back to his roots as an artist. The first song I was really drawn to was \u201cThe Internet,\u201d a very poppy song addressing the negative effect the internet and social media have had on our life. It really demonstrates a strength of him as an artist: the ability to give depth to a song beyond the music. The production on this song is one of the better on the album, and I find myself wanting to dance and sing along even when the lyrics are <\/span>\u201cNo one cares if you\u2019re happy \/ Just as long as you claim it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Another song I really enjoyed is \u201cCautionary Tales\u201d: a song that hits his alternative R&B side. It tells the story of his progression as an artist in the form of a fairytale, or an urban legend. It\u2019s produced just enough that it adds to the fun nature of the song, and even though he\u2019s not explicitly featured, Will Smith raps the chorus. <\/span><\/p>\n But my favorite song on the album is not one that I would listen to everyday, nor one that I feel like actually fits in with the rest of the album in style. It\u2019s the final song of the album, \u201cMah\u2019s Joint.\u201d The first two and a half minutes of the song are a tearful story of his grandmother\u2019s dementia, and how seeing her memory slowly fail and watching his mom take care of her even when she doesn\u2019t recognize her own daughter has had an effect on him. It\u2019s followed by a jazzy and more upbeat trumpet-based interlude featuring Quincy Jones, which is a nice contrast complimenting the beginning of the song. This song celebrates motherhood in a really beautiful way. I cried the first time I listened to this song. It showcases his voice by having very minimal production, and is a very touching tribute to the important people in his life, while allowing himself to be vulnerable about his struggles with his faith, something which heavily influences his life. <\/span><\/p>\n Overall, I think this album initially did not reach my expectations, granted, I set them very high. But I think this album is very 50\/50 for me. The more I listen to it, the more certain songs like \u201cBlu\u201d or \u201cAdult Swim\u201d really grow on me, but I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s as easily listenable as his other albums. You will definitely find me bopping out in my room to some of the music, but I think this departure from genre-bending music into strong pop is a change I wasn\u2019t expecting, and one that I still feel unsure about.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Olivia Malek I have been a Jon Bellion fan since I was a freshman in high school, back when his mixtape, The Definition, was his only music on Spotify. So when I heard Glory Sound Prep was being released, I was thrilled. He hadn\u2019t released any new music since his debut album The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1524],"tags":[157,33,26,607,608,31,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3273,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions\/3273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}