UK rapper Dave is back with his second studio album, We’re All Alone In This Together. Through 12 tracks and an hour of running time, the 23-year-old MC delivers an emotionally driven performance that touches upon everything from his family’s roots and upbringing to crippling injustices such as domestic abuse and governmental manipulation. The passion, energy, and raw aggression Dave uses to tackle these topics is quite powerful, and with above-average storytelling ability, he’s able to paint these maddening pictures masterfully. Behind the boards, a soundscape created by James Blake, Kyle Evans, and a few others handle this LP with complete and utter care as they engineer one of the most profound and dramatic scores of the entire year. Each note perfectly anticipates Dave’s tone changes and narrative climaxes, which allows his words to emphasize themself and drill into listeners’ hearts. Throughout stories that range drastically in content and direction, Dave does a solid job at tying these loose tales together by connecting them to the principles of loneliness and aimlessness. In this vast environment, the only tracks that don’t offer any sort of thematic expansion are the string of mediocre love songs. From “System” through “Law Of Attraction,” we get a lackluster set of moments that fail to embody any of the album’s core principles with their poppy soundscapes and bland writing. Still, this isn’t enough to ruin the experience, as the rest of the tracks do an above-average job with their topical connections and above-average lyrical and vocal showings. Overall, We’re All In This Together is another strong entry in Dave’s catalog, and if he can continue to grow and develop on his already adept arsenal, we may just see him dominate the entire 2020s.
Core Ideas:
- At the end of the day, we are all by ourselves
- What gives us purpose in a meaningless world
- Times may change, but our problems don’t
Key Strengths:
- Dave gives one of the most emotional performances of the year
- Powerful food for thought storytelling
- Stylistic Versatility
- Dramatic soundscape
Tracklist Ranked:
- Heart Attack
- Three Rivers
- We’re All Alone
- Survivors Guilt
- Both Sides Of A Smile (Feat. James Blake)
- Verdansk
- Clash (Feat. Stormzy)
- In The Fire (Feat. Fredo, Ghetts, Giggs, & Meekz Manny)
- Twenty To One
- System Bad
- Lazarus (Feat. Boj)
- Law Of Attraction (Feat. Snoh Aalegra)
Rating: 7.6/10
Why Isn’t It Rated Higher?
- Generic pop love songs hurt the theme and environment Dave did an otherwise great job at creating
- Dabbles in styles like drill, grime, and trap deter the LP from fully blossoming into the dark piece it aspires to be
- Lack of narrative cohesion make it challenging to ascended into any higher territory
Written By: Mr. Fantastic