Review: Lil Nas X’s Montero Is a Playful, Sincere Boundary-Blurring Debut

The boundaries between earnestness and camp are blurred, but the album retains the rapper’s sensitive, playful personality.

Lil Nas X, Montero
Photo: Charlotte Rutherford

Lil Nas X’s debut album, Montero, which arrives more than two years after the 22-year-old rapper rose to fame with “Old Town Road,” revolves largely around the daunting prospect of living and working in the wake of such seemingly overnight success. The album finds Lil Nas flirting with a few different genres and leaning into his identity as an openly gay man and artist. At times, the boundaries between earnestness, camp, and cheese are blurred, but for the most part, Montero retains its maker’s sensitive, playful personality.

Throughout the album, Lil Nas X contends with the insurmountable expectations prompted by his first big hit. “Word on the block is you fell off…If it ain’t ‘Old Town Road,’ Lil Nassy, I ain’t playin’,” he says on “One of Me,” parroting real criticisms or giving voice to his worst fears and insecurities, maybe both. Similarly, midway through “Don’t Want It,” he includes audio of a presenter bestowing him with an award and a news anchor announcing Montero’s title track reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100. But these clips aren’t chest-pounding, as success seems to haunt Lil Nas, casting shadows from which he feels ill-equipped to escape.

Lil Nas’s expressions of anxiety and self-doubt are served with honesty and tenderness, as well as some awkwardness. On the interlude “The Art of Realization,” he waxes about his habit of “Drivin’ a lot, just drivin’ in life/With no actual direction, not heading toward any specific place,” a sentiment that feels cliché. But while Montero has its share of trite and inelegant lyrics, Lil Nas’s reflections on life before he became a household name, as well as his current struggles with loneliness and potential irrelevance, feel sweetly sincere.

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That sincerity also extends to Lil Nas’s forays into new sonic terrain across the album. Like Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Montero leans into pop-punk, most notably on “Lost in the Citadel” and “Life After Salem.” Though this is certainly not Lil Nas’s strongest suit, he nonetheless acquits himself well, especially on the latter track, which is awash in guitar fuzz and feels harsher and more bracing than the rock-leaning songs on Rodrigo’s album.

Despite some standout vocal moments, like “Void,” on which Lil Nas impressively reaches for a high falsetto, his voice can sometimes sound flat, bringing to mind Travis Scott in the sense that both artists employ vocal manipulations to give their pipes a more distinctive sound. Whereas figures like Lil Wayne or Future wield Auto-Tune to exacerbate their already unique vocal textures, Scott and Lil Nas require it to stand out in the first place.

Lil Nas’s rapping likewise lacks a distinctive cadence or flow, something he addresses on “Dolla Sign Slime” in a roundabout way: “I’m the same dolla sign slime,” he admits, invoking Ty Dolla $ign and Young Thug as well as his rapping’s interchangeability with any number of other MCs. Then, as if to further illustrate the point, Megan Thee Stallion storms in and upstages Lil Nas with a blistering yet effortless guest verse.

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The duo Take a Daytrip, who co-produced the majority of Montero, lend even the weakest songs a sonic heft, employing horns to tracks like “Dead Right Now” and “Industry Baby” to punchy effect. They also spring-load the fantastic “Scoop” with bristling hi-hats and staccato bouts of cello, a sonic inventiveness that bolsters Lil Nas’s anything-goes approach. This is, after all, an artist who released a country-rap song and another one that mixes Spanish guitar, banjo, and 808s. Even if he’s still finding his lane, listening to him try is half the fun.

Score: 
 Label: Columbia  Release Date: September 17, 2021  Buy: Amazon

Charles Lyons-Burt

Charles Lyons-Burt covers the government contracting industry by day and culture by night. His writing has also appeared in Spectrum Culture, In Review Online, and Battleship Pretension.

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