After a full complete couple of listens, this album is okay, but not as huge of a monster that some make it out to be. It does have some certified amazing joints, but it has some overwhelmingly tedious songs too. Too much of OVERDOING IT lyrically as well as musically. Some of the music overproduced and could of been very much improved if it took a back seat to simplify it in order to AMPLIFY the lyricism more, OR at least if some of the songs, lyrically, ain't like trying to solve a Rubik's puzzle and Lupe just coast through the beat with straight forward lyricism those songs could be amplify better as well.
To compare to someone like Kendrick Lamar, you CAN be lyrically complex, musically expansive, AND stay grounded to be relatable to the listener. It felt at times, Lupe was trying to FORCE all of it together instead of allowing it to be more fluid. He wants to show you he's the so-called smartest MC in the room. He wants to show you he's the most musically imaginative there. He wants to do TOO much that it takes away the actual soul and heart into it. It's hard for me to sit back and vibe when I am trying so much work trying to decipher all the coded language he's saying. A song like Adoration of Magi WORKS where it was musically organic, lyrically smart, and not overdone. There's several songs that are like that and Mural was a perfect start, but overall the complete album felt disjointed to me. Still a decent album, so this isn't a trashing of the album, but my honest critique.
