Last year, I went from kind being completely indifferent to Travis to actually loving his latest album at the time, Rodeo. That LP has only grown on me more over the last few months, even after putting high on my year end list. However, I'll come out of the gate and say that BITTSM is nowhere near as great as Rodeo, but unlike some people out there, I don't hate it with a passion.
I will admit though, this album sees Travis falling back into his habit of putting some terrible lines in his tracks, especially the lyrical fluff of "Coordinate", a track that I like for its nocturnal beat, but really have to zone out the lyrics to fully enjoy it. And the entirety of the tracks "Guidance", "First Take" and the year old "Wonderful" are all pretty unbearable, and have some of Travis' worst production in a while on them.
That being said, the bright spots here are pretty great. I absolutely love "Way Back" and "The Ends", these two tracks kick things off right, maybe not as well as the opening moments of Rodeo, but that's a high bar to pass. Elsewhere on the track-listing we get the excellent "Outside" and just in time for Halloween, the track "Goosebumps" comes in with an excellent beat and Travis is actually playing with the idea of *gasp* actually being attracted to a girl for more than her body! Also, that Kendrick verse is hilarious.
Then there are moments that just fall in the mid-ground, such as the Kid Cudi featured "Through The Late Night" and the track "Lose" which could have been great, but it just lacks that special touch that tracks like "Goosebumps" and the "Pick Up The Phone", which I already talked about in my JEFFERY review. And I would have been upset to see it re-purposed here... if I didn't love the song so much.
Overall, this album comes off as the placeholder for something bigger and better. It isn't bad, but it's far from great, and while I do enjoy a few moments here, I'm looking forward to a more substantial release from Travis in the near future.
6.7/10
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