“This Is What I Mean” Album Review

After releasing his second album in 2019, Stormzy took a break from the rap and social scene as a whole. He took himself off social media for nearly three years to focus on himself and to work on making the best album possible for all his awaiting fans. He returned to social media earlier this year to help promote his third studio album, “This Is What I Mean,” and released it on November 25th, 2022. The twelve-track album shows how Stormzy has grown during his years offline, and as he focuses on quality over quantity in his third album, one that may truly cement him as, “The King of Grime.” Features on the album include a mix of uprising and legendary artists such as Ms. Banks, Black Sherif, and Ayra Starr. With nearly three years to craft this album, you can really see the development of his music, and I overall enjoyed this album, but that doesn’t mean it was perfect. 

Starting off with “Fire + Water,” which is a great intro track to open off the project, as it grabs the listener’s attention from the start of the song. The production is incredible as Stormzy knows exactly what to do to keep the listeners' attention, exemplified by the beat switch halfway through the song. However, the lyrics falter slightly in the second half, but the female voice that comes in at this point helps the track continue to entertain the listener through the end of the track's 8:17 run time. “This Is What I Mean” is a phenomenal song, with Stormzy’s arrogance on the track, it goes perfectly with the booming beat in the background that makes it probably one of the best grime songs I’ve ever heard. “Firebabe” is a great love song with an excellent female voice in the background; this, combined with Stormzy’s relaxed vocals, makes it a song that will almost certainly be played at weddings in the future. 

“Please” has beautiful gospel singing in the background but the lyrics falter slightly and the track just feels incomplete. It’s followed by my least favorite track on the album, “Need You,” which has a very average beat and Stormzy does no favors for it with his worst performance on the project as he mostly mumbles the lyrics throughout the song. “Hide & Seek” is a really well-produced track and a great track overall mixed with vocals as well, especially the echo in the background throughout the majority of the song. Stormzy talks about the troubles and rewards of a relationship, which can at times be toxic along with how it has allowed him to grow into a better person, in and out of a relationship. 

The track “My Presidents Are Black,” talks about how he’s struggled to get through the industry and really opens up on the track while also keeping his usual drill arrogance. A great hip-hop beat only makes the track better. Stormzy delivers the best of both worlds he shows throughout the album, with a mixture of soft singing and hard drill making it one of the best tracks on the album. Normally I’m not a fan of an artist allowing someone to sing over their whole song on their own album but Sampha’s track on the song, “Sampha’s Plea,” is excellent with how he performs and its placement on the tracklist to keep Stormzy’s vision going. It leads right into Stormzy’s “Holy Spirit,” which has the same type of relaxed beat and gospel-like singing in the chorus, mixed with Stormzy’s religious lyrics. “Bad Blood” continues with this mood, but personally I don’t understand what Stormzy is trying to get out of this track as it is a bit disjointed throughout the song and it just feels like an unnecessary track.   

“I Got My Smile Back” is definitely the best track in the second half of the album, as Stormzy hands out a positive message through his own journey since he started gaining fame. He tells the story of how he got caught up with toxic people and situations, resulting in him not being happy with the person he was. He goes into more detail about those mental demons in the later parts of the track and it is a very impressive emotional cut from the album, with this being one of Stormzy’s more vulnerable moments. The final track on the album, “Give It To The Water,” isn’t anything spectacular compared to other songs on the project but it does what it needs to do by wrapping up the project in a very neat bow. 

On this project, I can only respect Stormzy for not changing how he writes his music, and the subject matters he takes on while doing so. I enjoyed this album, although I do feel this new chapter for Stormzy left a few slightly underwhelming tracks on this project. This album, as a whole, is not underwhelming at all, I really enjoyed its positive message, I just felt it could have been more organic when it came to the production process of the album. I expected a bit more personality from Stormzy based on his previous projects, which is what I think is the last missing piece for this album to be a true 10/10. That being said, I would definitely recommend this album to anyone who is just getting into not just UK drill or rap but English music in general. I’m feeling a good 8/10 for Stormzy’s “This Is What I Mean.”

By Luke Birch

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