A disappointing collection of bland, stereotypical rap songs that embody mediocrity and stagnancy.
Jack Harlow’s Come Home the Kids Miss You is the Kentucky-based rapper’s second full-length album. It comes off of the commercial success of the single First Class reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Containing 15 tracks it runs for just over 45 minutes and boasts high caliber features such as Lil Wayne, Justin Timberlake, Drake and Pharrell Williams.
The main takeaway from the album is that in essence, Harlow is decent in small doses but when it comes to a full length album he lacks the substance matter and flow diversity to keep listeners engaged.
After listening to the project in its entirety, it doesn’t feel like the rapper has really undergone any growth since his last release. The production on most tracks is fine and there’s no doubting that Harlow thrives in his smooth delivery of lyrics, but it’s the lack of any memorable tracks that gives this album its rating.
Harlow is at his best rapping about how adjusting to fame has affected him, the relationships around him as well as what life will look like moving forward. His last project saw him include lots of lush storytelling with clever lyrics. While we do get some of that here, it’s a shame that storytelling is almost non-existent. It seems like he has decided to remove his best trait and has replaced it with a monotonic flow and ego.
The bulk of the subject matter is about women. To be more specific, the women he is going to sleep with, has slept with and is currently sleeping with. To say every song touches on this at least once is not an exaggeration. Now while this swagger and boastful kind of attitude is quite common in rap, the lack of any other depth on the album really highlights that sex is mostly all Harlow really raps about. When we’ve seen glimpses of Harlow’s storytelling and metaphorical ability on past projects, it’s hard to be anything but disappointed. I believe Harlow is much more talented than this, and that’s part of this album’s rating.
There’s a lot of Drake influence on this record as well. From the way Harlow strings together rhymes to his production and flow, much of it is reminiscent of Drake and it seems that he views him as a sort of mentor.
To summarize, the album as a whole doesn’t really contain any memorable songs, the beats are all pretty similar, and the subject matter is mostly surface level as well as consistently stagnant throughout. Furthermore, the features don’t really do anything to elevate the songs they’re on either.
Seeming cool and aloof might be intriguing in small doses but over the course of a full project it’s just boring. Listeners want to see some sort of emotion and there’s hardly any here. As such there’s not much to relate to at all for the average listener as the vast majority of us aren’t mega rich rappers that get any girl they want regularly.
This album is nothing special. It has a collection of tracks that are fine if they’re on in the background but don’t hold any deeper value when held up to closer scrutiny. Nothing really sticks with you and Harlow ultimately really underperformed here.