Released: 20 October 2017
Song Count: 13
Rating: 3.6/10
Description:
Joost Klein is a musical artist with a very unique discography and a public personality unlike any other, so I was curious as to what this mixtape from the earliest years of his musical career had to offer, especially given my personal admiration of his latest works since his unfortunately short-lived participation on a particular song contest that shall not be named here. What I ended up discovering, however, was far from what I expected from the - at least, in my mind - otherwise delightfully eccentric and one-of-a-kind style of Joost.
The first approximately 3/4 of the mixtape are made up of very similar-sounding songs containing listenable yet not particularly captivating Dutch rapping over a set of very simplistic beats, and in spite of some amusing lyrics sprinkled in at certain times, they generally fail to capture major interest. Some songs furthermore contain styles of rapping, for example with heavy autotune backing or in a shouting tone, that I perceive as particularly very grating to the ear, further tainting the listening experience. The only track that stands out amongst the others that belong in this category and manages to qualify as a relatively decent song is "Vrije Tijd", mainly due to its elements of singing and proper sing-rapping (and not just of the heavily autotuned kind) seperating it from the rest.
The last quarter of this collection of tracks, on the other hand, takes a more interesting turn in its musical direction that its precedents, introducing elements beyond the standard formula followed throughout the first three quarters and outdoing them in terms of lyrical comedy and overall listening enjoyment. The track "Netflix und Chill", as an example sounds very akin to a lot of Joost's more modern output of catchy and entertaining songs rapped in a very broken version of German about very mundane and seemingly random things to dedicate lyrics to, and as a result brings more enjoyment when listening than almost every other track in the album.
If I had to name one particular song as the highlight of the mixtape, however, it would have to be the more dance-track-styled "Schijf van Vijf", with its effective instrumental bell-like hook, fun structures and flows in the rap verses quite identifiable to Joost, and the weaker elements taking a backseat and only sticking around for short periods of time to make way for the parts to stick around for.
While this was an interesting glimpse to the past into where the style of the 27-year-old Dutchman started out, it is overall not an album I personally am likely to return to out of my own volition anytime soon. In spite of Scandinavian Boy not being for me, though, I may nevertheless find myself exploring other previous albums and works of Joost Klein sometime in the future, so stay tuned.