These past few months, late artist Juice WRLD who tragically passed away in December of 2019 due to an accidental overdose, has attracted recognition with his collaboration with popular video game Fortnite. The collaboration was gearing up towards the release of his 5th and final studio album, “The Party Never Ends.” (TPNE)
In December 2023, After many delays due to leaks, the first lead single was released titled, “Lace It,” which had a Eminem feature, with production done by Benny Blanco. Almost a year later in November, the second single for the album was released titled, “AGATS2 (Insecure),” which had a Nicki Minaj feature on the track.
As a long time fan of Juice WRLD, (I’ve been listening to his music since 2017) I came into the album with some high expectations. I expected this album to be a beautiful send off, with some of the tracks being the ones he was working on before his passing, filled with some heartbreak and more upbeat tracks.
I was anticipating this album since it was first announced in 2021, and I wanted to listen to more of his music since I heavily enjoyed all of his previous albums, which was always leaning towards the more melancholic side of music, but he also had his fair share of upbeat music. All of this gave me a high expectation of his album.
With the first listen of the album, I was quite disappointed. The title of the album made it seem like it would sound like you’re at a party of some sort. I thought that it would be filled with purely upbeat songs, but the album had its fair share of melancholy songs. Some of the tracks sounded incomplete and rushed, and the overall album felt like it was more of a random playlist of songs rather than a fully completed album.
Although many would think that since he passed away over 5 years it plays as a major reason why the album felt incomplete. He had the structure of an album with many fully completed songs that were set to be on the album ready to release but this album was eventually scrapped after he passed away and only a few of the songs were ever used.
TPNE faces a lot of problems from the get-go. The first few tracks felt lackluster due to the production not being mixed in well with the vocals, and this is a major problem in songs like “The Party Never Ends,” and “Lace It.”
Towards the latter half of the album there’s a track titled “Best Friend,” which is very poorly mixed and during my first listen of the track I mistaken it as AI made. This track suffers from his vocals sounding robotic and this made it seem like they were reaching the end of the barrel of the music he made before his passing. This song tried to get saved with the guest feature being the popular rock band Fall Out Boy. Their part of the song was great, but I felt like it didn’t fit their style of music and this song should’ve been cut from the album.
Although the album faced some major issues, there were some redeeming moments with the tracks “Empty Out Your Pockets,” “KTM Drip,” and “Cuffed.” These tracks were more upbeat and sounded party-like just as the title of the album emphasizes.
Also the track “Goodbye,” which is a solo song by The Kid LAROI, is a beautiful song where he’s telling Juice WRLD a final goodbye. He and Laroi had a great relationship before he passed and Laroi was mentored by him and they made music together. “GO,” and “Hate The Other Side,” are both one of their most popular songs they’ve made together.
Overall, this album in its entirety wasn’t bad, it had its moments where songs were mediocre, or just fully terrible, but the album also had its great moments with some tracks that are just purely a piece of art.
I would give this album a 7.2 out of 10. I wouldn’t recommend it to new listeners who aren’t familiar with his music. Although this album isn’t necessarily bad, just comparing it to his other albums, this is clearly his worst project that has been released. Albums such as “Death Race For Love,” or “Legends Never DIe,” are significantly better and would be more satisfying for a brand new listener.
