Ken Carson’s Junior Album, A Great Chaos, offers listeners a more upbeat and ecstatic take on the “Opium” sound, which stemmed from Playboi Carti. Ken’s focus on this album was to take what he created with his Sophomore Album “X” and expand on it.
Carson’s beat choice for this album is very similar to that of “X,” for example. Tracks “Overtime” and “Vampire Hour” have a similar sound and cadence to his tracks “Get Rich or Die” and “Delinquent” off of his album “X”. The whole album gels together and it feels as though each track transitions into the next track effortlessly as each beat is coherent and similar in nature to each other, Ken’s flow perfectly fits the fast pace and otherworldly sound of each beat.
A Great Chaos was mostly a solo album except for the three features in the album in songs “Singapore (feat. Destroy Lonely), “Paranoid (Feat. Destroy Lonely), and “Like this (Feat. Lil Uzi Vert & Destroy Lonely)”, although there are few features in the album, the songs that do have the features are masterpieces, especially “Paranoid (Feat. Destroy Lonely)” the whole song from start to finish is in my opinion perfect, from the 808’s to the instrumental lingering in the back. If I were to make one critique of the album it would have to be how short the album actually is, all though there are 18 songs, the total run time of the whole album is only 47 minutes. In my opinion, I believe Ken should release a deluxe version of the album in the coming weeks to solidify the album’s presence. I also think it would be a nice gift to his fans especially because he is going on tour in January.
My personal top 5 songs across the whole album are: 1. Fighting my demons, 2. It’s Over, 3. Paranoid (Feat. Destroy Lonely) 4. Overtime, 5. Rockstar Lifestyle. My least favorite song in the album has to be Pots, simply for the reason the beat choice. Although the beat fits with the overall album it just doesn’t work well with his sound and cadence.
If I had to give this album a rating out of ten, it would be a 9.4/10. It could have been a ten for me if it was just 4 or 5 songs longer and if it had a few more features. As a fan, this album made me hopeful for his career in the future and I look forward for his next album. I know that it won’t come within the coming months because of his tour, but I am still waiting on the deluxe version. Carson has been putting snippets of song in his Instagram stories as of recently so I believe a deluxe version is just beyond the horizon. I would personally suggest checking out the album and giving it a chance. It is definitely different from most rap music that is popular at the moment but the album was made meticulously and has good production.
