If you spend a lot of time listening to independent rap it can kind of start to “blend” to the point where everything sounds the same. That’s not a cop-out though and it shouldn’t stop you from spending hours in these Apple Music and Spotify streets. Because if you do stop you might miss out on someone like Seth Sutch out of Houston, TX. He is an ambitious rhyme-sayer with a pen that bleeds raw emotion onto each beat he picks. Just a year and 2 months removed from his last album Life Isn’t Frightening Seth returns with Sunset Nostalgia.

On the very first listen of Foreshadow, the album’s intro, I can’t help but notice a slight touch of inspiration from Mac Miller. I hate to compare artists to anyone, but drawing comparisons to Mac is pretty high up as far as rap goes. Foreshadow finds Seth reminiscing over a beat you would find on the Lofi Girl YouTube channel(I love that channel btw) as he realizes he’s finally made it to his destination. He’s been trying to reach the inner peace he’s been fighting for and he just hopes it’s all been worth it.

Foreshadow ends and All Grown Up kicks the door in as a sharp 180 from what we just heard. As the intro gently rocks you into a calming state Track 2 tells you to get up! A muddy kick and a vibrant soul sample act as the vehicle for Seth’s hard-hitting raps about his childhood experiences and current plans for success. “The pain gon stay but the money comes and goes” Seth declares with probably my favorite quote from the album. You have to appreciate his rap voice here. It’s just the right amount of volume and emotion that makes it mesh beautifully with an instrumental that would bury a lesser artist.

The album is off to a great start and Seth is killing it on his own but he opts against going the J Cole no-features route and enlists the help of Dende, Chris Patrick, and Lucas Home. And it’s a great decision considering their contributions to Better As Friends, Motivate, and Real Life. I’ve expressed how good Dende is and his and Seth’s effort here might make this song my favorite on the album. Dende shines with his penmanship, vocal performance, and melodic pattern. Seth isn’t here to be carried though, and contributes an immaculate verse mixing singing and rapping that serves as a no-look alley-oop pass off the backboard for Dende to dunk.

It would take me pages to break down each song on the album but one particular song I feel you NEED to lock into is Popstar!. It’s the most unexpected song on the 12-track project. A completely different sound than the 8 songs that proceeded it as Seth decides to let his singing side do the heavy lifting here. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that this song was inspired by Post Malone who Seth sounds eerily similar to here let me assure you Seth has his own rockstar voice and it sounds undeniably brilliant here. With a melody that will latch onto your eardrums and creep its way into your brain for the day.

The album takes a much more somber tone on the way out. While Better As Friends and Popstar! might be my favorites, for now, I think Sunset Drive is Seth’s best song on Sunset Nostalgia. It displays his vocal range and his ability to harmonize which you really don’t expect to hear at the beginning of the album. The wordplay and penmanship are a bit above everything else I heard on the project which is a testament to just how good Seth is. The fact that it’s just under two and a half minutes is probably my only slight to an otherwise perfect song. I truly hope you don’t miss the work of art that is Sunset Drive.

I say all of that to say Sunset Nostalgia by Seth Sutch is a full-range album that isn’t just targeted to one crowd and is exactly the kind of album you want from a newer artist. Seth gives you raw raps, real emotion, vivid vocals, rockstar-level crooning, and a few perfectly timed and blended features in just 12 songs. It’s an album I’m currently running back over and over and I think you will too, my friends.