Last week, I received a notification from Spotify saying that G-Eazy, an American hip-hop artist and rapper, dropped his latest album, Everything’s Strange Here. I immediately started listening to the album from the first song, like you’re supposed to. But the music that I was welcomed with was not the G-Eazy I’ve known for several years. I guess the album’s title mimics what fans across the board are feeling: Everything’s strange here.

G-Eazy is known for his a unique, ethereal sound that draws in listeners within the first few seconds of a song. His music ranges from slow moving hip-hop — like “Marilyn,” “Tumblr Girls,” and “Let’s Get Lost” — to faster paced songs where the artist’s cockiness in his musical and lifestyle abilities protrude through his lyrics. “Random,” “No Limit,” “West Coast,” and “Bang” are just a few to name.

When I listened to Everything’s Strange Here, I didn’t hear the soft, almost fuzzy beats lifting the rapper’s voice. Rather, I heard piano and guitar keeping pace with an adagio tempo while G-Eazy sang his cover version, “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” which was originally written and performed by The Korgis. (Beck has also produced a cover of the song).

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While I thought it was a little odd to start an album with a cover, I did enjoy the guitar in the second track, “Free Porn Cheap Drugs,” and in the fourth track, “All The Things You’re Searching For,” especially the latter. The song reminded me of bands that were incredibly popular in the 90s’ and 2000s’, like Weezer, Radiohead, and Beck. (Okay so that’s when all their good music came out but you get my drift). The lyrics were semi-depressing, but touched on the universal theme of “breakups are sad” and “my ex did a lot of blow.”

Other than those two songs, the rest of the album presents itself with mediocre and certainly un-catchy music. It’s not that all music should be “catchy,” but I should at least find myself wanting to listen to a song over and over again, as one does. “Lazarus,” “Every Night Of The Year,” and “Back To What You Know,” were especially uninteresting both lyrically or musically.

The whole album did have a sense of longing and sadness to it, and I do wonder if G-Eazy is just going through it or if he’s “grown up.” It could be both, but I do hope his future music reflects his past music, because evolution isn’t linear and doesn’t mean progress is being made.

However, we can’t expect artists to remain musically stagnant in their careers. There are several bands and musicians whose new music will never be as good as their old stuff — like *cough* Fall Out Boy — but that doesn’t mean we can’t miss our “James Dean of hip-hop’s” ‚— G-Eazy’s— old music.