Album Review: HDTV

Review by: Sean Speidel

Artist: Tai Verdes

Rating: 3/5

Breakout artist Tai Verdes’ second studio album, HDTV, proved that Verdes is more than a “one-hit-wonder”

After gaining popularity on Tiktok for songs such as “A-O-K” and “Stuck In The Middle,” Verdes’ new release HDTV is an attempt to show that he is more than just a TikTok artist.  

Overall, the album was very hit-or-miss. Songs like “Trix in the Bag” and “wit that confidence.” were rather uncreative and unmemorable compared to other songs in the 20-track album. Both of the songs opened with promising beats that were ruined by subpar uninspired rap. It seemed that for each enjoyable song, there was another that was rather disappointing. With little to no flow from song to song, many of the tracks were easy to forget.

Although most of the songs on HDTV are rather lyrically mild, the unique sound makes the album an enjoyable listen. Tai Verdes’ use of horn instruments in songs such as “LAst dAy oN EaRTh” and “Kingdom Come” was relatively unique compared to mainstream music and went along well with his refreshing carefree style.

With the release of HDTV, Tai Verdes showed that he is capable in multiple genres of music. HDTV contains a very wide range of music, from songs more familiar to his style such as “Clyde & Bonnie” or “sheluvme” to slower songs like “FYL” or “in this movie.” While Verdes is popularly known for a more upbeat feel-good style of music, “FYL” and “in this movie” brought out a previously unseen more emotional side of Tai Verdes that was missed in some of the earlier tracks. It was nice to see more than one dimension of the up-and-coming artist in HDTV. 

While HDTV was a rollercoaster to listen to, Verdes had many unquestionably enjoyable tracks and showed great promise for a rising star artist.