The best way to define I Decided is forgettable. It has few highlight tracks and lives in the shadow of its singles. In fact, the best songs on the album are the singles. You may ask where this opinion comes from, and to that question there are answers.

The project starts very solid, the track Intro is very reminiscent of the style of Dark Sky Paradise. Dark Sky Paradise is going to come up a lot, so keep in mind it is Sean’s previous album released in 2015.

Onwards, Sean takes listeners into a decent track named Light, featuring the one and only Jeremih. He is a solid feature because his high pitched voice contrasts Sean’s deep voice to make for a decent track.

So far so good. Then, the album continues in its positive direction with his single, Bounce Back. This song was previously released in 2016 and gave various fans confidence in I Decided.

It features production by legend in the making producer Metro Boomin. He is known for his production on various tracks with big names such as Future, Young Thug, Drake and Migos.

Following this track, the album takes a turn for the worst. It is fair to say that after Bounce Back, the album becomes sub par and the music is like watered down soda: horrible.

Each track becomes boring and slow, with the exception of Sacrifices featuring Migos and Halfway Off The Balcony.

One of the most anticipated tracks on the album, No Favors, starts out boring and only gets worse with a painfully lacking Eminem feature.

“I really expected more on No Favors,” senior Mikael Mechal said. “The beat was annoying and Eminem was horrible.”

If someone listened to I Decided as their first Big Sean album, it is likely they will enjoy the project. In the contrast, if they listened to Dark Sky Paradise and then I Decided, the album can become a dreadful 14-track long experience.

For Sean, this album is a severe downgrade from his last release. To think that he went from songs like Blessings, Deep, and Paradise to this is saddening.

The production on Dark Sky Paradise was solid and the features performed amazingly. On I Decided, Sean uses a storytelling style throughout the album.

Unfortunately, the poor production throughout the tracks does not support this style.

It actually takes away from the listening experience by making some tracks feel endless and boring.

In this case, the numbers speak for themselves, with I Decided selling 120,000 copies first week in comparison to Dark Sky Paradise’s 173,000.

“Dark Sky Paradise was actually fire,” Mechal said. “I Decided was not nearly as good.”

In comparison to Sean’s other projects, Hall of Fame and Finally Famous, this project is superior in some ways. He showed progress through his releases but I Decided seems to be a step back.

This is truly unfortunate due to the fact that the anticipation for this album was huge.

The best thing that long time Big Sean fans can do is hope for redemption in his next release. Overall, I Decided was solid as an album but disappointing as a Sean project.

Album Rating : 5.7/10