In retrospect, I think there are two really noteworthy things about Chance the Rapper's career:
- The first is that he was both the vanguard and the dying flame of a certain kind of 2016 Parks and Recreation core optimism and naivete that seemed to suffuse pop culture right before the great pendulum of fate swung hard back in the other direction.
- The second, of course, is that he is the most prominent artist that I can remember enjoying and discussing in my lifetime whose career was not just derailed but extinguished off of one extraordinarily poor album.
And it was, to be clear, only one album. It is trendy to pretend that a since-disgraced artist never actually had anything of merit, but I have fond memories not just of 10 Day and Acid Rap and Coloring Book but the entire Chance the Rapper extended universe. I'm grateful that he introduced me to Surf and, most importantly, to Noname, one of my favorite artists today. But The Big Day was bad—perhaps not irredeemably for Chance himself, but it felt like a nail in the coffin of his entire shtick, an album that failed not just thematically but sonically.
Six years later, we find ourselves with Starline, a 77-minute sprawl of an attempt to return to some kind of form. This album is, first and foremost, better than its immediate predecessor. Beyond that, though, the qualifications start seeping in.
I'm not sure what the goal of this album is beyond an overdue gallon of Listerine. There's some good production, some bad production, some good tracks, and some bad tracks. There are hints and feints at thematic through lines, but it feels indulgent and overlong, as if Chance's throwing spaghetti at the wall in hopes of finding a new identity that sticks. (You could lodge this exact criticism against Coloring Book, by the way, and Coloring Book staves off it by having an incredibly strong bookend to the album and an obvious through line of its message.) There is a fun, pleasant opening track and then 16 more tracks of varying quality. I harp on the length because I do come away from listening to this album with a sense that Chance has something meaningful and interesting left to produce.
I think there's a really solid 45-minute version of this album; I wish that is the one I got to listen to instead.
★★★
