2014 Forest Hills Drive Review

Posted on

Dec 15, 2014  Three albums in, with 2014 Forest Hills Drive, the “God” is home. The Fayetteville, North Carolina native composed an honest, nostalgic album without any apologies. Cole ‘2014 Forest Hill Drive’ Review. The most poignant music is birthed from nostalgic reveries viewed through one’s matured rearview. For the majority of 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

#2014 Forest Hills Drive

Album by J. Cole Review by Irevolution

01.) Intro

An emotional introduction into the album that has a very soothing feel. Marlboro menthol cigarette carton.

Rating: 7.1/10

02.) January 28th

A greatly classic influenced beat with a nice soft feel to it. J. Cole speaks on himself and how he’s one of the best undoubtedly.

Rating: 7.5/10

03.) Wet Dreamz

Another greatly classic influenced beat with a soft feel. J. Cole here speaks upon a girl that he went to school with that was sexually appealing to him to the point that she had him dreaming about her. At one point, he gets his chance.

Rating: 8.1/10

04.) 03' Adolescence

A nice light beat with beautiful pitched sounds. J. Cole speaks on himself and how he has changed. He also takes another stand at himself from a view of another person.

Rating: 8.3/10

05.) A Tale of 2 Citiez

The first trap influenced track on the record. I feel that J. Cole is someone who can do these tracks the right way with a mix of sound and lyrics. He tells a story with emotion about the life he lives (or lived at least).

Rating: 7.6/10

06.) Fire Squad

A braggadocios type of track with a nice grimy beat that replays a sample-styled chord of some sort. Definitely the type of track you can play while driving around and chilling; a real nod-your-head kind of deal.

Rating: 7.7/10

07.) St. Tropez

A calm smoking song that J. Cole speaks on a place called St. Tropez as well as Hollywood.

Rating: 7.4/10

08.) G.O.M.D.

A track with repeating sampled vocals and a distinct bass line with calm synths. In this song, J. Cole speaks on haters and relationships. It also addresses that no one seems to put positive emotion in towards women and things that matter.

Rating: 7.1/10

09.) No Role Modelz

Smooth trap influenced beat with nice background synths and glitches. As obvious by the title, he’s speaking on the things he does and that he’s not truly a role model in this current day.

Rating: 7.8/10

10.) Hello

A track with a piano and bass type of smooth beat. On this song J. Cole speaks on a woman that he wants to be with and is willing to wait for, but doesn’t want to. He’s trying to get her to notice this.

Rating: 7.2/10

11.) Apparently

A slightly classic influenced track with a piano and sharp percussion. In this song J. Cole speaks about his choices and that they’re his to make.

Rating: 7.4/10

12.) Love Yourz

A snare heavy bassy track. On this track J. Cole influences you to enjoy your life and know that it’s good (even with struggle). Essentially a track like “i (Love Myself)” from Kendrick Lamar but not so hype-filled.

Rating: 8.3/10

13.) Note To Self

A track with a piano that starts to slowly pick up then meets with a smooth guitar. On this track J. Cole is speaking to himself and he thanks everyone who was involved with the album.

Rating: N/A

Overall Rating: 7.6/10

This album isn’t something that will be labeled a classic, but easily a beautiful piece of work that will go down in J. Cole’s discography as a great album.

There is no rap artist out there now who I want to love more than J. Cole. He seems like a great guy who is very open, which I love in aThere is no rap artist out there now who I want to love more than J. Cole. He seems like a great guy who is very open, which I love in a rapper. For example, I love guys like Drake, 808's Kanye, and Kid Cudi. I have no problem with rappers being a bit 'soft' to get stuff off their chest, but damn does he struggle when he does this. He cannot sing to save his life and whenever he has some great, personal bars, he always follows them up with something incredibly corny. For example, the track 'Wet Dreamz' is very personal and I appreciate his openness on it, but it just comes off as corny and I cannot help but laugh at the thought he decided to put it on his album. The track and 'St. Tropez', 'Hello', and 'Note to Self', are undoubtedly the worst ones here, largely thanks to the singing on those latter three. He cannot sing, yet decides to basically just sing on all three of them. Whose decision was that? Who told him he could sing? If anybody ever complimented his singing, they were lying. The beats are also just ok here. None of them are overly interesting, aside from on the four tracks that really stood out to me, 'A Tale of 2 Citiez', 'Fire Squad', 'GOMD', and 'No Role Modelz', where the beats are all very good. Otherwise, this one is a classic Cole release. Cole shows flashes of potential to drop a classic album one day, but gets bogged down in nods to legends, terrible hooks, his singing, mediocre beats, corny lyrics, and a general lullaby-type feeling. While I liked Cole World and Born Sinner when they first dropped, I eventually came to not really like either of them for the same reasons I did not enjoy this release. I was really hoping this one would be the Cole album that i would like when it drops and then continue to like for the foreseeable future, but that is sadly not the case. As I write this, the disappointment I feel is immense, as I just really want to like Cole, but I just cannot.…Full Review »