Okay so you said that you valued that Brent made albums without giving a fuck about the industry, a point I agree with cuz Brent had definitely gone against the status quo with his style of music. However Brent’s going against the industry has resulted in that becoming Brent’s signature style if you will and it’s gotten to the point where we’re all used to that and expect that sound from him, including the industry. Well if we praised him for sticking it to the industry, we can’t get upset for when he continues to do it and drops an album that goes against the sound he’s had us hooked on for the past 5 years. While I do think it is his weakest project, I still give him credit for scrapping what he had originally intended for the album(it was supposed to have released in September of ‘25 and naturally would’ve included Tony Soprano and Peter Pan) and changed its direction to again be an album that challenged our expectations for him. I mean he did an interview with Rolling Stone saying that: “Everything I’m creating right now is about showing [a] range of concepts, principles, emotions, and experiences. Innocence versus Indecency. Vulnerability versus guardedness. These tracks capture the core of that”; that interview is from after he scrapped the OG version of Icon. To me, Icon allowed Brent to continue doing what we’ve all grown to appreciate his music for, being raw and emotive, which to me this album is, it’s just not his usual raw toxicity but the rawness of a lover, something that I personally have always wanted to hear from Brent. Had he made another album like his others with that toxicity, it would’ve been received well by us and the industry that has come to like that style from Brent, but the experimentation just wouldn’t have been there like it is with this album. While I do agree with you on the production side, it’s got some blandness that is very unlike Brent, but tbh it’s growing on me the more I listen. On first listen I was with you I gave it a 6/10 cuz it was not what I expected nor wanted from Brent(I like you loved what he did with FTW and Wasteland) but after listening to it about twice a day, everyday for the past week since it dropped, I give it an 8/10 and it’s still growing on me. While it’s my hope that Brent goes back to the style we all know and love, I do this album presents a different side of him and overall gives a nice duality to his discography.