like “Banzup’” and “Thanos (Blow It)” were
far from perfect, but they had personality
and drive. 7’s writing tries to speak to relat-
able themes in simple terms but unravels on
close inspection. “F9mily” drowns its cou-
ples-therapy conceit in clichés and Hall-
mark rhymes. “Bring U Down” takes aim at
Twitter haters, whom he addressed with his
recent coming-out tweet—“some of y’all not
gone fwm no more”—but absent the slight-
est snarl, the song lyrics make “You Need to
Calm Down” look like “The Story of Adidon.”
“Kick It” is a take on the jilted-fan narrative
that Eminem perfected with “Stan,” but
there isn’t enough meat on the main charac-
ter (a weed man who gets snippier the lon-
ger he hasn’t heard from a celebrity client)
to write a whole song from his perspective.
On “Bring U Down,” “Kick It,” and
“C7osure,” Lil Nas X explores the shock of
sudden fame, but he tends to approach the
theme from strange angles. These songs
illustrate the ways others start to see him dif-
ferently but rarely say what that feels like, on
the artist’s side or that of the people fighting
for his attention. 7 is bloodless. It doesn’t tell
you much about the guy who made it. Musi-
cians don’t have to write about themselves,
but if you’re going to do story songs, you
need characters. The most compelling ones
this EP summons are cowboys and cartoon
characters. “C7osure” and “Panini” are
breezy, catchy love songs, and “Rodeo” is a
banger amped up by a killer verse from
Cardi B, an artist whose patient moves in the
wake of her first No. 1 single ought to have
given Lil Nas X clues on how to follow up a
hit that people don’t think you can top. “Old
Town Road” still rings off, but dreck like
“Kick It” and “F9mily” makes you wonder
how many more miles are left in this ride. ■
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