Pain turns to anger quickly on "Syphilis," with threatening verses yelled through a filter of distortion. "Empty" opens the album with tortured verses over sweet piano loops, and the hooky "Robbery" starts with Juice WRLD drinking strong liquor before scream-crying lyrics about getting his heart handed to him in a paper bag.
Considerably longer than its predecessor with 22 tracks clocking in at over an hour, the predominant theme remains illuminating different angles of agony.
Second album Death Race for Love continues this hybrid of lush sonics and desperate feelings. Despite a limited emotional range, the album highlighted Juice WRLD's musical dexterity, offering darkly dreamy melodies and druggy textures in complex arrangements that pushed aside standard commercial rap boundaries. Chicago rapper Juice WRLD quickly got swept into the emo-rap designation when his 2018 studio debut, Goodbye & Good Riddance, showed up with a richly produced collection of songs about breakups, betrayal, and numbing the pain. Recording information: Blue Room Studios, Hollywood, CA Crosby Collective Studio Burbank, CA Electric Feel Studios, Hollywood, CA Gold Tooth Music, Beverly Hills, CA Sarm Studios, London, England Twin Studios Parls, France.