Sweeter Dreams, the debut album from the quirky 23-year-old Toronto based artist Ramriddlz. This album comes to us at a time where we have had minimal music from him except the songs from his older projects P2P(2015) and Venis(2016). Venis was one of the first projects I reviewed and I mentioned how my expectancy following that was an album and maybe some Dancehall features embracing the roots of a lot of his sounds(is this a real Mavado feature??)
The album is a concise one with 12 tracks and I anticipate it will be full of happy, tropical and chilled vibes based on what I know of him already.
1. Melanincholy
“Let me beat it up like Jagen”, that tag is actually one of the best after “If young metro don’t trust you..” in my opinion. I’m pretty sure I heard this a few months ago but not to sure, it’s got some sort of Christmas jingle/rock thing going on. Some light relationship storytelling mixed in with trademark lines will make you just laugh.
“Smoking pot yeah, until I speak Patois”
2. No Amore
Where is that sample from at the beginning from? I know it’s a classic but I can put my finger on it. Ramriddlz has been on a heartbroken vibe so vibe so far talking about his old flame. I like this more than the first track, it’s a faster more playful tempo.
3. Pop Rocks*
An ultra chilled cruiser with a catchy hook. It reminds me of the song he did with Zues The Weekend a while ago (below). It is quite emotional and dark production wise but it’s the best song so far.
4. M.D.M.B
With the obvious song title reference to MDMA, I was pretty clear on what to expect. He flips drug use to highlight how it doesn’t come close to filling the void of someone special. It does feel a bit too long though, I need something faster again.
5. Sweeter Dreams*
Massive classic song to take on Ram. Does it work? hmm yeah, I guess it does, he didn’t really have to do much vocally with this party production. I think he executed this wave more uniquely with his Venis hit Left, Right.
6. Habesha*
This is a smasher, it’s so refreshing when an artist truly embraces their culture and those around them instead of just spurting generic stuff. It is also an example of why I put him another lane to similar artists in his lane e.g Nav(production skills aside). The video is a good watch to brings the whole feel of the song to life.
“Salaam, they call me Ram But you can call me Ramy, madame”
7. Scotch Bonnet(Ft Tommy Lee Sparta)
What a lackluster Dancehall feature. I’m really surprised he hasn’t been able to get Alkaline yet. The song should’ve been called mayonnaise because it was bland as hell. Is he running out of steam?
8. Oceans
This is the same old vibe, eight songs and I’m already bored of the album. Maybe he should’ve just made this an EP.
9. Thing About Me
A fun caring song about love and heartbreak, I don’t really have much more to say about it.
10. Summer Bummer
Summer Bummer haha Ramriddlz sounds like a modern day Busted or something on this project. The thing is although he sounds heavy hearted he still comes in randomly with some banter lighten up the mood.
11. Woke Up
Ram “Woke Up” a little bit, at last, not too sure the house vibe flows with the rest of the songs. The tropical breakdown at like 2 minutes is nice though.
12. Worst Love
I’m actually over this project now, back to Venis haha this is too emo for me.
Ramriddlz seems like he wanted to use this project as a means to show people that he’s not just a novelty artist. He achieved that to some degree with what I guess is what he would call his coming of age project. There are a few songs which I like but generally, the tempo is too slow and subjects are repetitive. Overall, I actually think Venis was a project where his creative talents were in full swing.
Top 3 Tracks: Pop Rocks, Habesha, and Sweeter Dreams
Rating: 6/10
Fancy becoming part of the inspirEnrich contributor family? 😀 head over to here: inspirenrich.com/contribute
