Once Houston’s most hallowed theme park, AstroWorld was where children ran amuck, teenagers landed their first gigs, and families cooled off during the hot summer months. The park, which opened in 1968, was a beacon for thrill seekers. It closed down in 2005 as a result of rising land values and declining attendance, leaving broken hearts in its wake. The place meant a lot to folks, naturally; and one of those people is Travis Scott.
Scott told GQ in 2017: “The next record is called Astroworld. It might be the best music that I made… They tore down AstroWorld to build more apartment space. That’s what it’s going to sound like, like taking an amusement park away from kids. We want it back.”
At the heart of Scott’s third studio album is the pursuit of an unquestionable singularity, of honoring his stylistic forebears without adopting their aesthetic. With Astroworld, he manages just that. The 17-track LP, which boasts a hefty cast, is the Houston rapper-producer’s most visceral and boisterously declarative to date. It blends the euphoria of an acid trip with a disarming angst fit for all night raging. Scott follows his impulses like a wide-eyed youth gunning for the next high. He knows exactly where he’s going and it’s not anywhere he’s been before. The psychedelic and purely gorgeous “Stargazing” has the air of a lucid dream; it delightfully switches tempo mid-track and creates a pocket for Scott to get open. The Drake-assisted “Sicko Mode” is a more straightforward attempt. While Drizzy certainly holds his own, Scott gets downright magisterial over hard-hitting drums, rapping “This shit way too formal, ya’ll know I don’t follow suit/Stacey Dash, most these of girls don’t got a clue.”
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Scott’s 2016 album Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight had its fair share of bright patches. But it often felt like he was trying to pack in too many ideas at times where simplicity might have served him best. Now he has finally narrowed his gaze, guiding his spaceship onto sonic territory that he can call his own. Astroworld is not a course correction, necessarily—Birds was, in fact, a strong release—this is Scott expanding into a more laser-focused version of himself.
On “Stop Trying to Be God,” Scott taps James Blake and everyone’s favorite Hum-God Kid Cudi. It also features a harmonica-playing Stevie Wonder. Produced by J Beatzz, the prolific Mike Dean, and Scott himself, it’s the project’s most introspective moment. It executes a level of emotional depth, that, for Scott, has only come in spurts on his earlier projects. “You won’t succeed tryna learn me/I stick to the roads in my journey.” Blake’s searing vocals reverberate in the listener’s mind like a spell.
While Astroworld is certainly Scott at his most fully formed, it’s not all cathartic soundscapes and self-reflective raps engineered perfectly. “No Bystanders” is a flawed cocktail of zealous but passable verses, a tiresome hook, (an homage to Three 6 Mafia’s “Tear Da Club Up”), and a beat that alone can’t save the song from feeling trite. Scott’s cadence on cuts like “Skeletons” and “5% Tint”—which samples the piano riff from Goodie Mob’s “Cell Therapy”—is simply impenetrable. And the thumping “Coffee Bean,” with its soothing electric guitar, sees the rapper opening up about his love life and his fears about the future. Scott is at his best when his infectious melodies are underscored by moody textures, basslines, and keys.
Listening to Astroworld is like witnessing a born star find his way. This is him ready to ride his own wave, unafraid to take it where it’s going. The former site of that beloved theme park may be a massive empty lot now, but Scott has built his own audio version that transcends what perhaps even he thought possible.