Almost a decade into his profession, Submit Malone has largely shed the luggage of his youthful years—the times of cornrows, gold grills, saucin’, and shortsighted remarks about rap music. He’s a nine-time Grammy nominee and a trendy man who, at a fast look, hasn’t gotten any extra tattoos—no less than not on his face. He’s develop into a part of the pop music institution, and his fourth studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache, is accordingly slick, streamlined, and rather less vulgar and ostentatious than his earlier work—an indication that Malone is taking himself extra critically, for higher or worse.
For somebody so outwardly colourful, Malone has lengthy been an easy lyricist with humorous and curious turns of phrases in his songs. There was, in fact, the absurd saucin’-and-swaggin’ chorus of “White Iverson,” in addition to his amusingly puerile point out of “stunning boobies” on “Spoil My Night time.” However he additionally incorporates unlikely folks into his memorable moments, like eulogizing Bon Scott on “Rockstar,” or singing, “Include the Tony Romo for clowns and all of the bozos” on “Psycho.” Even when he flexes, Malone has a penchant for exposing the leeriness of his personal needs, as on Beerbongs & Bentleys songs “Takin’ Photographs” and “Identical Bitches.” On Twelve Carat Toothache, he continues to play it straight, declaring on the opening tune, “I used to be born to boost hell/I used to be born to take drugs,” and, “I used to be born to fuck hoes/I used to be born to fuck up.” There are most likely extra suave methods to phrase these sentiments, however that’s not how he operates: He delivers straight what’s in entrance of him, whether or not that’s the entrance of his thoughts or a front-facing mirror, as on “Cooped Up” when he lists precisely what he’s sporting (“Gucci my Prada, Miyake/Louie, Bottega, and Tommy”).
The songs on Twelve Carat Toothache swerve between ache and pleasure, and whereas Malone has at all times match lament into his albums, these new unhappy songs don’t really feel tortured, labored, or ungracious. As an alternative, Malone deftly performs up bitterness with a wink on the jaunty “Lemon Tree,” trilling his voice with a playful hyperbole. Elsewhere, the splendidly over-the-top “Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol,” made with Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, opens with a cascade of vocal harmonies. The manufacturing booms and the drums thunder as Malone sings about getting too drunk and having all of his tooth knocked out. Although you’ll be able to hear the sorrow within the tone and the lyrics, the tune sounds triumphant—like one thing that would conceivably soundtrack a raucous night time out.
