Review: "SZN" Album by Desean
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Evansville, IN based rapper Desean spits pure fire on the fierce flows of “SZN”. Stylistically he blends psychedelic, electro, anchored in a glistening hip-hop template. The album features incredible production for the sounds glow. Full of so much exquisite detail, Desean pushes the sound further out than most resulting in an experience that feels all-consuming.
By far the very heart of the album comes from Desean’s powerful lyricism, for he delivers each verse flawlessly. Highly thought he brings elements of navigating the oddity of relationships alongside pulling oneself up. Pop references adorn much of the album helping to capture the zeitgeist.
The angular, taut grooves draw heavily from Flying Lotus’s intricate sound design. With every beat polished and perfected, they hit with an emotional cadence. Desean’s flow moves quite quickly much of the time, a rarity with the slowed-down aesthetic that has become prevalent in a lot of hip-hop today. Thus, his style feels a bit on the old-school vein, akin to Busta Rhymes impeccable wild delivery. A lot of the album seems to neatly bridge the old-school and nu-school hip-hop scenes, taking the best bits from both.
On the opener “Szn Avenger” the bass hits with a vengeance, with the backwards sampling along with his speed works wonders. Things are pared back to the essentials on the jazzy kick of the title track “Szn” where Desean’s rapping has a poetry to it. A sense of the dramatic comes into focus with “Missed Calls”. Giddy melody on “Doing Me” has a confidence to it, for the song is a celebration of the self.
Beats have a brittle feeling with “Drip Gang” for the production has a raw intimacy to it. The highlight of the album emerges on the colorful “Ultra Instinct”. Here Desean takes the beats to a whole other universe, infusing melody into the groove giving the song a sense of optimism. Dreamy to its very core the finale “Zendaya’s Finale” has a cinematic sweep to it, bringing things to a wonderful close.
“SZN” proves Desean to be a true artist one who employs a wide variety of techniques to his album and in so, creating a work that feels so vulnerable, raw and real.