Live Laugh Love

the take

It's kind of weird seeing Earl Sweatshirt coming off as genuinely happy on record. Then again, life is already hard as it is, so for him to be at peace with everything is something I'd both admire and envy about him. As such, we got "Live Laugh Love", a project that reflects just that. Me and Earl both have that "unc" status applied to us, and that may be the reason why I gravitated toward this more than I normally would. He maintains his usual flow that he's known for, albeit a bit more joyous this time around, and his lyricism is still top tier per usual. Earl knows how to creatively put how he's been feeling in a complex yet calming way to get his point across, which I feel on a spiritual level. The production on here is what you'd expect to hear on an Earl Sweatshirt project as of late: abstract, calm, infectious, and brief. While it holds higher precedence over Earl's bars, each song doesn't overstay its welcome, but I kind of despise how short the runtimes on the majority of them are on here. The first half of the album is great, but the best material relies on the second half, namely "Static", "CRISCO", AND "exhaust". "Live Laugh Love" sees Earl Sweatshirt maturing and seeing the positive in everything around him. As a fan, I'm jealous of him because he seems like he's finally found the peace and happiness he's been longing for (also happy for him as well).