Odd Future - The Odd Future Tape Vol. 1 (Album Review)

 

The OF Tape Vol. 1 cover via Internet Archives

    Almost every Odd Future fan out there has obviously heard the Odd Future Tape Vol. 2, the collective's only collaborative group studio effort, but I can guarantee that not many Odd Future fans these days truly go check out the OF Tape Vol. 1 and bump it all the way through; every single track. I for one, WAS one of those fans until last night when I decided to listen to the entire thing, and tonight I'm probably going to re-listen to it. I actually really fucking liked it a lot, and I had more reasons than one and some thoughts on it so I figured it was best to review the project.

    First and foremost, it's honestly an inspiring mixtape to listen to. Even though the quality isn't always the best at times, the mixing and recording was extremely rough, and the songs often have some try-hard lyrics/choruses that were meant to be catchy and get heads nodding, but now in 2022 sound a little lame. That's just a small, small, small lump sum, the rest of the entire project is amazing. I think the beats on this project were some of the most interesting I've ever heard. You know when you kind of have no idea how to properly make a beat but you do it anyway because you don't care and want to try and make a song? That's what a lot of this is like but not in a bad way. Like I said it's inspiring as hell, because even if the beats were a little strange they made a ton of this material sound great.

via Reddit

    The OF Tapes aren't the only albums made by the OFWGKTA collective, in 2010 they released my personal favorite mixtape/album of theirs, Radical, which included 'Orange Juice', a notable fan favorite Odd Future/Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt song collaboration. Radical featured the OF group rapping over their favorite beats, which means they didn't make the beats this time around and could because it's a free mixtape, and if you haven't heard that shit, click that link above and listen to it. Unlike Radical though, Odd Future has always been known to make their own beats and instrumentals, and on OF Tape Vol. 1 one of my favorite parts is the heavier involvement of the Super 3, a sub-collective consisting of Syd, Matt Martians, and Hal Williams. Left Brain adds three interesting beats on this whole project, but I feel he could've done a lot more, or at least, I would have liked to see him do a lot more.

    Obviously, this mixtape came out in 2008, so it was about a year or so before Earl Sweatshirt would eventually join the collective and start an interesting musical career of his own. But, as an Earl-less Odd Future project and a starting project at that, this is a good one. Somehow Odd Future Tape Vol. 2 feels like a sequel to this mixtape in many terms, but one is the beat production for sure; both albums have such an energetic and spacy sound, and are both incredibly promising. Well, that's my half-assed review, I hope you enjoyed at least a little bit of it, but either way let me on my twitter or something what you think or follow, or don't, I don't care.

- Rhett Rhodes