Oakland, California rapper, singer/songwriter, producer & actor G-Eazy making up for the delays of his 8th studio LP. Breaking out into the mainstream with his 3rd album These Things Happen in 2014, this was followed up a year later with When It’s Dark Outas well as The Beautiful & Damned back in 2017. Scary Nights was a subpar prelude to These Things Happen Too, Everything’s Strange Here easily stands as his embarrassing body of work yet & the These Things Happen sequel was only better by a small margin. Freak Show was one of the worst albums of 2024 & is putting out Helium only 11 months later.

“GRWM” was a mediocre trap intro talking about hoes calling him & asking them to pay him whereas “Kiss the Sky” gives boom bap a shot only for him to miss with a weak homage to the iconic Jimi Hendrix cut “Purple Haze”. The title track gets into his signature pop rap style pleading for this woman’s love leading into the underwhelming boom bap/rap rock crossover “Outside” featuring Diany Dior staying out for the summer.

Finishing the first half, “Dream About Me” tells his ex not to even think of him in her dreams over a generic trap instrumental just before “Fight & Fuck” gets back on the pop rap vibe once again describing a toxic relationship where he & his partner argue only to make lover afterwards. “Nada” wound up being a close contender for one of the worst singles to come out in 2024 partying when he wants, but then “After Dark” expresses his desire to be understood.

“How Can You Sleep?” gets it going on the final minutes of Helium with an acoustic pop rap cut finding G-Eazy admitting that he can’t move on from this woman that he said he would try to leave in the past & I found the lead single “Vampires” to be a tiring closer addressing toxic relationships once again although I don’t really mind the moodier sound all that much nor did I have any issue with the Bahari hook/bridge.

Conceptually built around the highs & lows of love & life, the sliver of optimism I had regarding this one wasn’t really done any justice even if it was released the day prior of G-Eazy’s birthday & the birthday of his brother he was closer than close too. The boom bap portions are actually average at best & the idea of parties never lasting forever being worth it in the end is a valid life lesson, except neither the trap or the pop rap cuts don’t really scratch the itch.

Score: 1.5/5

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