A better time, the most anticipated album of the year after Wizkid’s “Made in Lagos”, has received its fair share of criticism and appraisal since its official release.
Music icon, David Adeleke professionally known as Davido dropped his 3rd-studio album on November 13, weeks after his 3 months break from social media and it has garnered millions of streams across platforms.
The album came almost a year after his 2nd studio album, “A good time” which was released on the 22nd of November 2019, about seven years after he released his debut album, Omo Baba Olowo, in 2012 and three years after his deput EP, Son of Mercy in 2016.
The popular superstar, Davido seems to have a stint for the number “17” as he replicated the number of tracks on his sophomore album on his new album, which came off as an overkill for me.
The 17-track album heavily featured notable artistes in the Nigerian and international music scene, like Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Lil Baby, Tiwa Savage, Nas and others. While some of the featured tracks were amazing, the others were absolutely unnecessary, Davido shouldn’t have to feature an artist simply because he has the access.
The track “birthday cake” featuring Hitboy and Nas was an epic fail for me and should have been omitted from the album. The featured artistes are legendary American rappers for Pete’s sake and it sucks that they couldn’t produce an above average project, in my opinion.
Kenyan singer, Sauti Sol is an incredible artiste and has worked with several Nigerian singers, however, the track ‘on my way’ didn’t mirror the kind of energy expected of him. Although, it isn’t a total miss, it is not a pass either.
At this point, you might begin to think I am too critical of the album and the artiste did a terrific job to pull it off within limited time.
So moving away from the negatives, Davido was astounding on this project as the tracks transcended different music taste.
‘FEM’, the opening song of the album was the first track to be released and had become a street anthem and protest song for the #EndSARS campaign before the release of the album. The line “I dey live my life, man dem turn am to shoot on sight” specifically stood out as it indirectly relates with the cause, even though it was unintentional.
The excellent international collaborations on the album were A holy ground with Nicki Minaj, and Shopping Spree ft Chris Brown & Young Thug.
DMW’s signee, Mayorkun, brought his A-game to the album and sprinkled extra spice on the songs he featured in. The track “The Best” is an absolute win and one of my personal favourites.
The South African beat in “I got a friend” made it turnt and you would subconsciously start moving your body to the rhythm because the sound is irresistible.
Bella Shmurda, the new kid in the block brought his unique vibe to the track “Fade”, thus making it the people’s favourite. The duo literally killed the song.
Nigerians are generally huge on danceable beats, hence some of the tracks on “A better time” have a high tendency to become HIT songs in the coming days.
After multiple listens, my rating is 7/10.
Reviewed by Ejiroghene Okpirikhre
