MUSIC REVIEW: See You Next Wednesday - Belly

The XO family brings out another album that let’s Atlanta know they might want to hang up their trap jersey and hand the crown over to Canada. Belly is back : honest as ever with songs that aren’t lyrical-miracle, but are witty and biting as ever. Aimed mostly at himself, yet the listener ends up catching stray shots.

With songs in where the emcee claims that he stopped using heavier substances, the man sounds clear as ever; though don’t be mistaken – other artists featured on the LP use auto-tune to mask themselves. Liberally at least, but they just don’t seem to fit on a record that appears to have been recorded in front of a mirror.
With that said, I don’t care how great of a posse cut “Requiem” was – I never want to hear The Weeknd use auto-tune again ! “Better Believe” and the song with an exhausted Nasty fresh off his “King’s Disease” run (“Die For It”) are reasons enough that Abel should leave that to Nav, who on that latter joint shows out for the Brown Boys, by crafting a verse with comedy that sounds only like the preface to a downfall caused by nothing more than a co-dependent relationship destined to implode. Such subject matter is a theme common on all XO records, but Belly handles his heartbreak with a dull stoicism (that he brags about on his Benny

The Butcher featured “Money On The Floor”, with a slick wrestling reference as he claims to be “The Main Event” and not the “undercard” and a shoutout to the late great “Frank White”) which is in contrast to the Weeknd’s braggadocio and manically sarcastic false happiness (as he screams “I’m Single, I’m Single” on the first of a slew of records aimed at the club here in the optimistically titled “Better Believe”); and Nav’s auto-tune mask, a constant on his tracks as are the sunglasses on his face.

This is XO, a record label comprised of the best poker faces in the business. And in an album where it is a challenge to differentiate a majority of the voices on this album , because of the thick effects laid on every vocal – I can tell who Belly is when he lays his stoic flow down on “Scary Sight” along with Big Sean, an artist who tries to come off the same way, but ends up sounding as uninspired as ever.
This, the guest list – is the largest of missteps on “See You Next Wednesday”. When the intro in “Snakes & Ladders” & “IKYK” appear like they are about to give way to a singular narrative… had “Flowers” been moved up to the third slot and Belly would have capitalized on the inserts there and crafted a full blown story, “See You Next Wednesday” could have reached it’s full potential. But after the long wait in between albums culminating into this offering that deviated into radio & club chart attempts not even halfway through, I don’t know when I will hear this record again. But it probably won’t be next Wednesday, or anytime soon.

Belly is an entertaining artist, and yes, this is better than any album out of Atlanta that came out with the same bassline driven beat and heartbroken ex-drug dealer theme. But if I want to hear a lament then let it be a soliloquy, because “See You Next Wednesday” just has too many voices on the side for this to be a coherent aside in the stage of Belly’s life.

SCORE: 3/5

Artist: Belly
Release date: August 27, 2021
Labels: XO, Roc Nation

Check it out on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/7jJsNB4u538DpyZckBEKsB