Everything is a work in progress. I am often reminded of this when I listen to artists who haven’t hit their stride. The only thing you can measure is improvement. Is this work better than the last? Is there a sense of growth or are we stuck in the same patterns.
In that sense, Big Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise is a victory. After his last effort, 2013’s Hall of Fame, we visit Big Sean that is still more lost than found. It isn’t that the music is bad, but it reminds you that there is such thing as too much polish. As good as the music is Hall of Fame, it lacks depth, and is more “keeping the ball afloat” than taking chances and getting to know Big Sean.
It’s refreshing that he starts off Dark Sky Paradise with his father’s voice. Its right there where you know that we are getting something a more personal with this album. And it doesn’t just stop there, you find him talking about his last relationship with the single “I Don’t Fuck With You” and his family in “Blessings” with lines like “My grandma just died, I’m the man of the house. So every morning I’m up cause I can’t let them down, down” let you into his process.
The entire album feels like a diary entry. It flows, with distinct emotional, inspirational highs “One Man Can Change The World” and dealing with dark lows with the Kanye West assisted “All Your Fault”.
There are a few missteps on Dark Sky Paradise. “I Know” feels a little to long and seems like a reach. “Stay Down” is one of those songs that work drunk, but within the context of this album, just doesn’t fit. It feels like a bit of Hall of Fame creeping. With those two back to back, “Deep” suffers but ultimately gets the album back on track.
It feels like with each release, you understand that Big Sean is getting closer to discovering the classic process. With Dark Sky Paradise he hasn’t landed into that vaunted territory, but you see him circling his plane. When you do well enough to get another chance, you owe it to yourself to do better. Big Sean buys into that, and with that attitude, the sky is the limit.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 