Third Time Isn't Always the Charm: bbno$ Continues With Disinterest on 'recess'

BBNO$: RECESS

SCORE: 52/100

recess is a much more structurally solid approach to music than Gumuchian's previous two projects, with the production on the album showcasing more potential than anything else he had worked on previously; but there's still enough wrong with the album as a whole to make it yet another difficult LP to get through despite such a short runtime.

Something that is shockingly immediately apparent is the improvement in Gumuchian's flowing as a whole. His vocal deliveries are slightly less monotone and start to resemble the sound he is known for more closely, with a more intentional tone being set that is a mix between disinterest and smooth; creating a sound where he is trying far too hard to seem nonchalant on his own project. 

The album is much more tolerable than his debut self-titled mixtape as well as the 'bb steps' LP, with this project relying on less "comedic" lyrics and more lyrics that are brain-numbingly boring rather than outright cringeworthy. 

Despite such a short album runtime, recess feels significantly longer than it actually is, and the slow tone of Gumuchian's voice makes each track feel like a chore while listening. The album is made up of songs that are nothing new for him, and despite some stronger track contenders, songs like 'stucco' show exactly what the problem with Gumuchian is artistically. 

It's unfortunate that the two sides of the bbno$ spectrum are awfully cringeworthy or brain-numbingly boring; but this album is the lesser of two evils, with some of the material almost showcasing a potential for Gumuchian that has still not been reached. 

This album relies almost entirely on features (which are hardly even noticeable unless you dig into the tracklist), with the amount of featured artists and reoccurring slots being enough to make this feel more like a collaborative album than something of his own. The lack of creative structure or memorability on this project is almost astonishing - and it truly showcases that Gumuchian is a one-trick pony when it comes to his music. 

Gumuchian comes off as nothing but a one-note narcissist within the entire runtime of recess, and never has a 26-minute long album felt so long before. It's incredibly frustrating to go through a discography where almost every project sounds the exact same; especially when there's almost nothing of value on any of them.