“Heroes and Villains” is the second studio album of Metro Boomin, an American record producer and songwriter. This Grammy nominated album has many examples of great production sampling and a unique sound and style–especially the original mix (not the remixed version) I am listening to..
Metro Boomin doesn’t lay down any bars on this album and most of his influence over his project is behind the scenes. This album is great, solid, but I think struggles with having a too passive style. It contains very popular songs and lyrics and choices being platinum certified while only being two years old.
Choices like past production tools being used by mixing engineers make it feel like instrumentals that are live versus midi and mixing being retro versus contemporary; it really glues this album together well to have a more consistent style–which it struggles with. It does sound modern but at times too modern and bland.
NOTE: I thought these were important and interesting talking points to bring up before starting the overall review. While I will be including the intro as a non-interlude since other interlude tracks contain a clear indication of it, unlike the intro, I will not include the bonus tracks. This will not affect the final score.
“On Time” begins with a choir-type singing with an intro speech and singing from John Legend. With striking strings in the background singing “ON TIME,” and Morgan Freeman speaking about Metro. It starts interluding to the next track “Superhero” with a sample of Homelander from “The Boys” saying how he’s the real hero.
It’s a very singing-based track overall and a good intro, but I think it lacks something interesting and extra until the second half; it’s a good interlude or intro and I thought it had enough substance to be reviewed. It’s above average: 9/10
“Superhero” is a great track, very hype with good overall tension and elements in the beat with a kind of altered organ sound, and a very heavy drum track, with vocals being the centerpiece. Future raps a very good bar that makes this song.
Strong hype tracks the lyrics from Chris Brown and the intro for the switch to sampled Jay Z off of Ye’s “Appalled.” Great. A perfect track for hype: 8/10
The “Too Many Nights” track is also drum-heavy but less than the previous with a synth in the background carrying most of the track melodically. Don Toliver’s intro verse to the outro with Future is great.
The beat is way better and I think the rhythmic idea with the lyrics really fit the heavy drums on this track. I like this track: 9.5/10
“Raindrops” has a dark piano and a heavy kick and clap-based drum pattern until switching to more high hat-based near the end. With a chord progression playing, the main verse, and only verse other than adlibs, is performed by Travis Scott.
It’s a more melodic track and I think it does pretty well and I like it, but the melody could be a little more prominent: 8/10
“Umbrella” has a lighter intro with a more prominent and loud melody. It has similar drum patterns as “Raindrops” with 21 Savage taking the head of the lyrics. I like the melody being stronger; it makes the track stand out a little more.
With a Young Nudy verse smashed between, the lyrics aren’t bad, but their vocals themselves kind of don’t fit this track. But they are still strong. With a little more vocal manipulation it could have been way better: 7/10
Something to add is if the intro was used more with the melody I would have loved it one thousand times more.
“Trance” is one of the most popular tracks off of “Heroes and Villains.” It has a more heavy melody, still having rhythmic elements and a feature from Travis and Young Thug. The lyrics are awesome and catchy. I think this track meets the hype.
“Trance” is a lot stronger than most of the previous tracks and is one of the better tracks of this project: 8.5/10
“Around Me” feels great. I like Don Toliver’s style and this matches my favorite project of his, “Love Sick.” The production is again very simple, but I still like it. It’s a nice chill-sounding track with a good amount of rhythm
“Around Me” is strong to me, but maybe not to others. I do like its different vibe. My favorite so far, to be honest: 9/10
“Metro Spider” gives me a hot take. In most scenarios I am not a big fan of the sound of Young Thug’s voice. But this is just kind of a middle-of-the-way track with good vocal mixing. What really sells this as a hype track is the production. It misses a little bit of spice that makes it fall a little short.
“Metro Spider” is a track anyone could have made, as it’s not that interesting other than what Young Thug lays down: 8/10
“Creepin'” is a pretty solid track with a more vocal emphasis. The Weeknd’s performance does deliver here. But a struggle I have is if there were way stronger melodic elements, I would like it a lot more and this track sits back. Another problem I thought I would have with this track is 21 Savage. I’m just not a big fan of his style of voice or cadence.
On the track, he does fine. The problem, though, is that this track doesn’t really move at all for me: 8.5/10
“Niagara Falls” is a good track. I like the more audible piano and mixing choices. I love Travis’s hook, and 21’s verse delivers again. The track has a lot more motion than the last one. Travis definitely oversteps 21 in vocal performance.
Love Morgan Freeman! “Niagara Falls” is pretty strong: 8/10
“Walk Em Down” has a hard bass I like a lot; 21 does an ok job. I like being able to hear more sounds. The mixing for the bass and the drums is pretty good and I love the piano melody. The tension is great and builds very well.
I love the pause in the middle to just the piano, very good dynamic with the rising noises in the background. I think Mustafa delivers a pretty good themed verse. As the beat gets faster, I get more hyped and enjoy this track.
The ending was fine but felt a little late sometimes when I would listen to this track: 9/10
“Lock On Me” touches the melody part of my brain a lot more with the background strings being prevalent in this song. Overall, just decent verses from Travis and Future and it’s just a track, not good or really great and different: 7/10
“Feel The Fiyaaaah” is my favorite track of this whole project. I loved Rocky and Takeoff and the beat with the vocal sample is so “fiyaaah.” I love the way it builds up the beat and is so prevalent throughout the dynamic between the bass and the high-pitched sample.
Strong verses, fire beat, feeling the “fiyaaah”: 10/10
Overall, while I like “Heroes and Villians,” it was very generic to me, and the ways it was different did not speak to me. A problem I see is a lack of hard melody lines or elements at points, which makes or breaks production for me.
In this instance, it broke it. My favorite tracks are “Feel The Fiyaaaah,” “Too Many Nights” and “Around Me.” I think the people on the tracks make the difference for me since Metros is based on features. A$AP made “Feel the Fiyaaah” good–to me Don Toliver also has this effect, with Travvy picking up the middle tracks a lot more.
I’ve loved these artists throughout their careers, so It makes sense that the tracks they were on would sound the best to me because they influence the vocals and possible production choices.
A lot of these tracks lack that specialness, hard melody or different melody choices between songs, but it isn’t a terrible project. I do like a lot of the vocal performances and mixing and mastering, but the melody just doesn’t hit like that most of the time. One thing I can’t really complain about is the drums being pretty good on every track.
“Heroes and Villains” is a solid modern hip-hop album, but it may be too simple. Every verse is solid, and the interludes are fun. This project is an 8/10 total–better than average, better than great, but not the best.
