Teenage Emotions
| Lil Yachty
Teenage Emotions
Teenage Emotions is the debut studio album by American rapper Lil Yachty. It was released on May 26, 2017, by Capitol Records, Motown, and Quality Control Music. The album features guest appearances from Migos, YG, Kamaiyah, Stefflon Don, Diplo, Evander Griiim, Grace, and Sonyae Elise, among others. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Yachty is our master of joy. His debut album is well-polished and full of pop-rap confections, but his polarizing style hardly captures the nuance suggested by the album’s cover and title.
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Rolling Stone
Love him or hate him, the Atlanta rapper’s debut is melodically, rhythmically and thematically radical.
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Vulture
Yachty’s thing is unbridled happiness and weightless hooks, and Teenage Emotions could’ve used a bit more of both.
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The Line of Best Fit
What Teenage Emotions does that’s more important both in the short-term and for his overall career prospects is prove that he should not have to answer to the hip-hop community in the first place.
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The Guardian
Like the cupcake frosting on which Yachty almost certainly lives, you couldn’t eat it exclusively, but the nerve-jangling, even psychedelic sweetness is a bold, new flavour in rap, one that shows the genre is more creatively varied than ever.
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Complex
I think his whole personality and the way he goes about everything is awesome and he's definitely someone that is good for the culture but this album to me wasn't what it could have been. It was structured around cliche song titles based off things teenagers are thinking, for example titles like "Moments in Time," "Dirty Mouth," or "Priorities," but I felt the songs didn't evoke the real feelings and just kind of kept it surface level where I felt Yachty could really hit hard.
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HNHH
None of the common complaints about Lil Yachty are valid, but "Teenage Emotions" still isn't a great album.
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Pretty Much Amazing
The moments when his music really comes alive with joy are the best on Teenage Emotions, and they’re often the less rap-oriented moments.
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Paste
Teenage Emotions doesn’t have a defined aesthetic and feels like Yachty is still experimenting, and his refusal to rely on formulas is commendable for a 19-year-old overnight sensation. He’s figuring himself out and having fun while doing it — which is a beautiful thing.
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The Musical Hype
Idiosyncratic teen rapper Lil Yachty drops a wild debut album with ‘Teenage Emotions.’ Ultimately, it is a bizarre, messy, and polarizing effort, lacking in depth.
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Ratings Game Music
Yachty has always had a glimmer of potential, and on this album he certainly lives up to it. You get the best version of Yachty on it, which is saying a lot cause this s–t could’ve easily been a disaster.
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Fansided
There is massive potential on Teenage Emotions, and legitimate moments where his ear for music and his penmanship co-exist in harmony.
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The Young Folks
This was supposed to be considered an album but ultimately, it was just a jumbled mess of throwaway songs.
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Dozens of Donuts
If only the rest of Teenage Emotions harbored that sort of youthful wonderment. Instead, the beloved spark that was Lil Yachty has officially been burnt to a crisp, his tenure as Trap's lovable loser replaced by 69-minutes of inept self-validation. A genuine outcast trying to fit in results in a humiliating experience for all. So much for that all-inclusive cover of freaks, geeks, and rejects.
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Crack Magazine
Teenage Emotions is a bold and distinctive artistic statement, but the excessive 21-song tracklist is overwhelming. And with this arguably being one of 2017’s most anticipated releases, there’s too much filler here for it to quite match to the hype.
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Ben's Beat
Rating Teenage Emotions was very difficult, as I only really enjoyed about half of the tracks here, but it is easy to see how influential Yachty has already been, and will continue to be, for many years. Yachty has turned the genre upside down, and when it works, it really works. Soon, he’ll learn how to make things click more often than not.
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The AU Review
Overall, the album lived up to the expectations of many, regardless of how high those expectations were set. The album is very polarising in the fact that one will either love it or hate it, but the highs outweigh the lows by a lot, meaning the album is a substantial debut for a name that will be around for a while, like it or not.
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Diamond in the Groove
Teenage Emotions is far from the final nail in the coffin of Lil Yachty’s relevancy, but it does suggest that the musician is risking losing his fanbase by compromising his initial charm for mainstream appeal.
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Spill Magazine
The set does get better as it progresses and with repeated listening. It will be interesting to see if Lil Yachty can sustain his current wave of success.
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Be Briscoe
I don’t think I’ll return to this album. Quite forgettable. Teenage Emotions displays Yachty’s variety as an artist. The execution is what was lacking. Yachty recently said that he believed his brand overshadows his music capabilities. Well…he was right. Lil Boat.
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Spectrum Pulse
There are a few decent cuts, but there's nothing great, and they're outweighed by the ugly, incompetent, or just plain monotonous. And when the kids that liked this grow up in five or ten years when Lil Yachty is forgotten, they'll probably feel very much the same.
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Opinionated Opinion
Too my surprise, I’m not a fan of the album, but I can understand the traction the album will get. It’s lyrics are easy too remember and don’t require much breakdown of what he is trying to get across on tracks, but Yachty’s enthusiasm of incorporating different genres and having the majority of the album with solo tracks.
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Verrastro Album Review
I am completely disappointed in this album, because I know Yachty isn’t the greatest rapper or singer alive but come on. I am not feeling this one bit and that line about having sex with his step-sister will haunt me for the rest of time.
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What Went Wrong With
Forget that each and every song is indistinguishable from the last, look kids, it’s called “Teenage Emotions” and there’s a gender symbol, all that definitely means something, it must be a young, open-minded, even feminist album right? Well, keep thinking all that shit as Yachty raps “There’s piss all on the floor, bitch, go clean it up”. Ooh, how bold and unique, how radical, what an original aesthetic and persona.
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XFDR
TEENAGE EMOTIONS is refreshing. Many will hate it, some will love it, but nobody can look me in the eyes and tell me that Lil Yachty isn’t having much, much more fun than we are.
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Varsity
Lil Yachty’s studio debut is a brazen, exciting debut – if a little clumsy and heavy-handed – writes Sabrina Gilby.
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Odyssey
And thus comes "Teenage Emotions", the first thing that immediately caught my attention about this project (aside from the intriguing bit of symbolism that was the cover of the album) was the enormous 21 song track list. Now obviously I attempt every listen of music with a mostly unbiased premise, however I have a bit of skepticism for giant projects like these that tend to drag on and over stay their welcome.
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The Times
This 19-year-old rap sensation from Atlanta, Georgia is leading a new era of hip-hop in which open-mindedness, eccentricity and optimism go alongside simplistic nursery rhyme melodies, futuristic beats and familiar gripes about suffering from an excess of money and girls.
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Jetlag TV
At only 19 he has been scrutinized for his views, outlandish behavior, and different style. “Teenage Emotions” pitted Lil Yachty vs. Lil Boat. With the dynamics of the two personas being so different we were given a treat that sonically showed us why Lil Yachty will be a staple in the culture for a while.
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Jason Romagni
this album could maybe be seen as an elaborate prank designed to belittle his perceived lessors while subjecting an audience to a test of wills–a game of chicken where everyone loses.
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The Press of Atlantic City
But if you listen closely to the 19-year-old’s new album, “Teenage Emotions,” you’ll be reminded that Yachty is a sound more than an image. He wouldn’t be here if not for his strange, yawning delivery — a loosey-goosey approach where vowels get stuck on the roof of his mouth, then spill onto the rhythm, messy and sweet.
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Pop Matters
The back half is full of heartbreak, happiness, and all things teenage life over some really good instrumentals varying from trap to reggae to ballads. It has arc. It has feeling. But for some reason, Yachty thought that bragging about himself, calling out haters, and trying to prove that he can rap (he shouldn’t so much) was more important than creating something focused and sincere.
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Exclaim
In the album's best moments, Teenage Emotions feels like a bit of a misnomer, but it's a little too apt at others, given Yachty's juvenilia throughout. That might have been avoided with a careful cull of the tracklist, though it also demonstrates his breadth; there are a number of places that the musical tradewinds might blow Lil Yachty next.
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Talk House
I see very little reason to hate on this dude. He’s a real musical guy, a beach boy, a happy dude, he be doing his thing, he throw in all the li’l styles of today, li’l bitta Rae Sremmurd, Fetty Wap, Migos, and Gucci flows, he hits all the pop buttons, raps when he wants to, I’d wish him luck but he doesn’t need it.
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HipHop N More
Many will consider Yachty’s debut album to be a flop but it’s more of a learning experience and ties into the struggle of fitting in as a teenager. While Yachty may be the prom king of his core fans, he has a long way to go if he wants to fit in with the music industry.
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XXL
Lil Yachty's official debut proves he's having fun making music that he likes despite the criticism he's faced. He doesn’t take himself too seriously and actually manages to successfully put together an album with a decent theme and purpose. Teenage Emotions exemplifies Yachty playing by his own rules, as he puts it on "Priorities".
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Immortal Reviews
Lil Yachty never finds his flow on Teenage Emotions, and it's more or less like listening to the sound of a trainwreck for seventy minutes. There is little redemption on the record that justifies such an amalgamation of terrible tracks. Even if you're in it for the jokes, you still wouldn't want to put yourself through this. Save yourself before it's too late.
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COS
On his major label debut, Teenage Emotions, Lil Yachty expands upon the sounds and styles that made his previous mixtapes such divisive earworms. If the listener is on board with the Yachty persona, it’s an extremely fun listen.
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Medium
The Teenage Emotions album is almost well put together, well refined, most of the tracks on the album are so well created and with purpose and now other rappers in Yachty’s clique can now sort of look up to him and his art as a sort of blue print for them and their own works.
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Roseandblog
It’s a surprising twist of tracks in which I actually enjoy listening to Yachty and see his future value as a pop-rap artist. I still can’t stand Lil Yachty’s blunt and downright degrading lyrical material, but he showed me on Teenage Emotions that with age, he might actually be able to put out something worth while.
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All Fire Media
Lil Yachty Plays by His Own Rules on ‘Teenage Emotions’ Album.
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13th Floor
The audaciousness of Lil Yachty’s disregard for virtuosity would be almost admirable if Teenage Emotions had been an album that focused on the real, complicated emotions that come with being a teenager. Instead we get an album that is bloated with its own self-importance ultimately lacks any musical, lyrical or thematic flow.
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Acclaim
This definitely wasn’t an album for teenagers, I think he was really just talking about his own teenage emotions.
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Rolling Out
‘Teenage Emotions’ is subpar, but still a success for Lil Yachty.
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Spectrum Culture
He’s become the face of what many purists consider to be the whole mumble rap movement that’s “destroying real hip-hop,” but on his studio debut Teenage Emotions, he just sounds like an odd kid figuring it all out which is, y’know, kind of endearing.
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Jet Mag
LIL YACHTY IS FOR THE PEOPLE & HIS DEBUT ‘TEENAGE EMOTIONS’ IS TOO.
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Hip Hop Wired
If you’re going into listening to Teenage Emotions looking for things to hate on, you will find plenty. But, if you are willing to give Yachty a shot, you may find yourself enjoying the few times he does show emotions.
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Weekender
And if Yachty is anything, he’s true to himself. Throughout “Teenage Emotions,” Yachty displays an interest in a variety of genres of music, and toys with them to varying degrees of success.
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Vashtie
The album’s cohesion comes off as spotty at times, but added to the over all theme of teenage emotions which tend to run the same course. . From the intro all the way to the last track Yachty deals with relationships, fame, trust, and family.
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Surviving The Golden Age
So whether you are watching a hamster eat tiny sushi on YouTube or listening to Lil Yachty, we all deserve a little happiness in our life, but I just wish Teenage Emotions had just a little less Lil Boat and a little more Lil Yachty.
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365 New Albums A Year
Teenage Emotions becomes more of a spectacle to watch happen in front of you rather than an album to really enjoy. Yachty may be tapping in to some youth culture but it is unlikely much of this record is going to push through. Yachty still has plenty of time to course correct or change completely, we'll just have to keep watching.
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Tiny Mixtapes
But as is, Teenage Emotions reads more like that freshman-year college paper you really wish you’d just deleted off your hard drive.
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DJ Booth
Teenage Emotions is loud and outrageous, unusual and bold and perfectly embodies what Lil Yachty offers hip-hop―an individual who got this far embracing idiosyncratic taste.
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Hip Hop Savvy
Lil Yatchy surely could do a lot better looking at the project in whole, but absolutely didn`t completely disappoint.
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Culture Hash
Yachty is a controversial figure, especially within rap, where his amateurish lyrics and dinky delivery style put him at odds with the more ‘traditional’ rappers. However, the album fails to deliver on this promise of blazing a new path within the genre.
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Ryan Review
Lil Yachty had a chance to make himself permanently engraved into hip hop culture with this album, but didn’t seem to go into the making of it with that ambition in mind.
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The Fresh Committee
At 21 tracks, Teenage Emotions is a road trip of an album — the kind where your mom controls the aux. Doused in Auto-tune and inexperience, this debut is the rendezvous of novice and novelty.
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Out Loud
These fleeting moments in Teenage Emotions make one realize that his sense of pop song-craft is certainly present, a component of his character that has yet to be honed.
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Flood Magazine
Teenage Emotions jumps genres wildly, with Yachty’s Auto-Tuned vocals the only constant. The twenty-one-song album plays more like tracks grouped together than a curated selection of songs.
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Daily Trojan
Lil Yachty reaffirms his rap style in Teenage Emotions.
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Cloud City Sound
Teenage Emotions is the result of a kid from the future generations being put on display in a rap game ruled by past and present generations, and it deserves our recognition.
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Those Who Can't Critique
There is plenty of emotional teenagers out there and they deserve music that will engage them. Being a teenager is tough and perhaps when Lil Yachty grows into a Big Yachter he can calm those stormy seas. For now, Teenage Emotions serves only as an emotionless wreck.
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Natty Jahms Music
Maybe Yachty’s music just takes some ear conditioning? IDK, but ‘Teenage Emotions’ has conditioned my ears to his music quite well.
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Slum Music
Yachty Deserves A Solid 4/10 Because Of A Rushed Album, With A Disappointing Build Up & For Not Delivering A Good Debut Album. Yachty May Be Young But There Is No Excuse For The Content Of This Project.
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The Perfect Mix
I don’t think Lil Yachty’s career is finished after this record, but he needs to go back to the drawing board and nail down a musical image that defines exactly who he is as an artist. Lil Yachty has the ability to make great songs, he just needs to remember how to do it.
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Frank Macari
LIL YACHTY’S ‘TEENAGE EMOTIONS’ MIGHT CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE RAP.
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Dead Seriousness
This album sounds like a 15-year old freestyle rapping over trap beats in the basement when his parents go to bed. To be an adult that truly appreciates Lil Yachty you have to pretend like you’re an idiot.
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Festival Peak
Lil Yachty’s critics say his music isn’t hip hop. His new album proves them wrong.
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Section Eighty
Teenage Emotions is the mind of a child star blown-up and on exhibition at the epicenter of modern rap. It’s there to be gawked at and appreciated, and then maybe enjoyed.
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