New NAV Album: Hit Or Miss?

Nathan Gaurin, Broadcast Journalism|September 23, 2022

Pitchfork

Demons Protected By Angels – NAV

Reviewed on 9/21/22

Tracklist (+my rating):

 

Count on Me(Intro): 3/10

Baby: 5/10

Dead Shot (with Lil Uzi Vert): 5/10

Never Sleep (with Lil Baby feat. Travis Scott): 4/10

Last of the Mohicans: 6/10

One Time (with Don Toliver feat. Future): 4/10

Demons in My Cup: 5/10

Playa (with Gunna): 6/10

Weirdo: 2/10

My Dawg (with Lil Durk): 4/10

Don’t Compare: 4/10

Interstellar (with Lil Uzi Vert): 5/10

Loaded: 2/10

Lost Me (with RealestK): 3/10

Reset (with Bryson Tiller): 2/10

Mismatch (with Baby Face Ray): 5/10

Wrong Decisions: 5/10

Destiny: 3/10

Ball in Peace (Outro): 3/10

 

After listening to this album on repeat for a whole chem lab and more, I give the vibe of this album a 5/10. It always felt a little empty, and while the beats were well made, the production could’ve been a bit more thorough. NAV delivers his usual autotune filled, flow heavy, confident bars, but its getting old at this point. It feels like you could sub in any song from “Good Intentions” or “Bad Habits” and it would fit in with this album. It’s just NAV doing his thing and there’s nothing really special about it. I’ve never been a huge fan of NAV mainly because his bars feel overused and its not really exciting anymore.

 

There were moments in the album where NAV tries to be more melodic and use his voice more, but the lyrics were so corny that it distracts you from the awkward auto tuned vocals and makes you wonder what you’re doing listening to this instead of literally anything else.

 

Overall, the album was pretty boring, it had a few relatively decent songs where the features and flows gave the song more listenability, but most of the time it was a simple flow over a NAV type beat and nothing to really write home about lyrically. Some standout songs from the album were: Playa (with Gunna), Last of the Mohicans. I really don’t understand how the feature list could be this stacked and still not add any energy to the album.

 

In conclusion, the album as a whole is forgettable, and on the Fantano Scale: Light 4