Album Review: A Great Chaos
By: Jamison Brown
A Great Chaos (AGC) is Ken Carson’s third studio album following the 2022 release of X. AGC features 18 songs with a collective length of 47 minutes, with tracks featuring Destroy Lonely and Lil Uzi Vert. I’m going to be covering the album in chunks, splitting it up into 3 parts (~ 6 tracks in each section). This is to give myself a pallet reset from all the distortion and bass that may make this album feel long & repetitive. Additionally, I won’t cover every song, just the ones that caught my attention. Without further ado, let's cause some chaos!
AGC starts off strong with tracks 1-6: “Green Room,” “Jennifer's Body,” “Fighting My Demons,” “Singapore,” “Lose It,” and “Hardcore.” The start of this album must be the 1972 Miami Dolphins the way it doesn’t miss. “Green Room” is a great introduction to the project. The best way I can describe the track without being too vague is a floating-in-space-like feeling, like a rager’s version of “Location.” It’s as though Ken is building up the hardcoreness of the album by starting a bit tamer before working his way up. Following “Green Room” is “Jennifer's Body,” which must be a sequel to “money & sex” from Lone’s album the way the beat starts off for both. Both songs are eerily similar, yet they are completely different songs. Ken approaches “Jennifer’s Body” with a flow that’s a bit more energetic, matching the cadence of the beat. The song feels like a polished version of “money & sex.” “Fighting My Demons” and “Singapore” weren't very notable in this section to me. They weren’t bad songs; I enjoyed them for the fact that Ken sounded like he was having fun on both, but I’d consider these appetizers before the main course. The entree, in this case is, “Lose It,” which leaves me speechless every time I listen to it. The distorted bass and the catchiness of the lyrics make this a favorite on the album. I could not finish the album on my first listen simply because of how much I’ve had this cut on repeat. For that matter, the only two tracks I had on repeat were “Lose It” and “Hardcore.” The way “Lose It” transitions into “Hardcore” feels like a non-stop mosh. “Hardcore” has Ken going gore (as he’d say) with the help of a rage, live leak, creepypasta-filled beat.
The next section of this album is tracks 7-12: “Me N My Kup,” “It’s Over,” “Succubus,” “Paranoid,” “Pots,” and “Like This.” There are a few good songs here. They weren’t highly notable, but some are better than I usually expect from Ken. “Me N My Kup” was a good switch-up from "Lose It.” The production of this track was different from what I usually hear from Ken. It’s like a mix of modern ATL trap with a slight influence of that signature hardcore sound synonymous with Ken (& opium). “Succubus” was a likable song, too. The track features Ken’s cloudy/faded-out vocals over his signature distorted, filthy production. I’d say it’s a chill person’s version of “Lose It.” “Like This” was a very underwhelming track for the amount of star power on it. Lonely and Uzi on a song that’s not one of the best on the album is blasphemy. I can’t speak for the masses, but with the heavy metal/electronic sound Uzi presented us with on Pink Tape, I thought he would bring more definition to the hardcore nature of this album. Yet, what was presented was a track that sounded like a throwaway song you’d put on a deluxe for the sake of it. Quite frankly, I think the album could’ve done without it.
Finishing off the last leg of the album are tracks 13-18:“Overtime,” “Vampire Hour,” “Nightcore,” “Nightcore 2,” “Rockstar Lifestyle,” and “i need u.” Ken finishes strong with the last leg of the album. “Overtime” was nothing memorable; it was a decent song at best. I will say the beat was pretty good, but that’s expected from Ken. Moving on to “Nightcore” and ”Nightcore 2”, they were fun songs that reflected their titles perfectly. They both remind me of 2009 Nightcore remixes. “Rockstar Lifestyle” was a solid track. The way the beat drops is filthy… Absolutely nasty. The lyrics are basic, but we don’t listen to Ken for words, only vibes. He redeemed himself from Overtime and ties this album together with the popular single “i need u”. This song was the cherry on top of this solid body of work.
Overall, the album was solid. I’d argue that this is one of Ken’s most polished pieces of work. Comparing AGC to his previous works like X and Project X, you can tell Ken took his fans' critiques into consideration when making AGC. As I mentioned throughout the review, parts of the album sound like polished versions of Ken. From production to lyrics, this was a fun album I can easily listen to again when I need to rage.