In 2022, you would be hard-pressed to find a Montreal artist as beloved by the city as Little Burgundy's own Nate Husser. Starting his career as one-third of the Posterz, Husser has since worked to cement himself as one of the city's flagship artists through his solo material. After years of hard work building a buzz that reaches far beyond the city, the artist has finally delivered All Time High, his debut solo album.
On All Time High, Husser is at the height of his powers as a performer, fervently delivering bar after bar with an enthralling level of charisma, perfectly matching every instrumental present here. It's impressive that his style is malleable enough that his cartoonish cadence can perfectly accent a beat as boisterous as "Dwayne Carter Flow," or bring an instrumental as sparse as the DJ Coco-produced "Lil Big" to life.
It's clear that Husser is acutely aware of his strengths and what works for him at this junction in his career. This isn't a project with any underlying theme or concept, but a collection of playlist-ready songs that could all end up as singles. While most of them aren't chart-toppers, they could all be plugged into Spotify's RapCaviar playlist and fit right in.
The aforementioned "Dwayne Carter Flow" is a perfect example of this. It's an incredibly infectious track, with Husser delivering one of his most impressive flows on the record, seemingly playing keep-up with the rattling hi-hats laced into the instrumental. It's a solid homage to Lil Wayne, and the hook is an absolute earworm.
Another highlight is the album's closer "Calamari," a fantastic track whose instrumental has hints of A Tribe Called Quest's "Excursions" present in its DNA, while its verses couldn't be further from it. In different hands, the plucky bass line and boom-bap drums could have led to a more laid-back summer jam, but Husser takes it somewhere completely different, delivering some of his strongest verses. The track reaches a crescendo on the final verse as he comes through with an unexpected level of intensity and aggression, as the beat catches up to him through a subtle build-up. It's a fascinating moment, making for the LP's most unique song.
Moments like this are what make Husser an incredibly magnetic personality on the mic. If it weren't for his dynamic delivery and unmistakable energy, some of the more generic instrumentals here wouldn't do much, but he brings so much life to every song that even those with the blandest production become eventful.
The one big detriment of All Time High is the sheer amount of material on the record arriving ahead of release. With five songs released as singles in the past six months, the 10-song tracklist becomes underwhelming as a result, despite how enjoyable the songs are on their own. While it would be nice to go into a brand new album without already being familiar with half of it, All Time High is an enjoyable project. Rife with personality and filled with fluid flows and uptempo, bass-heavy beats, it will likely keep trunks knocking from Little Burgundy to Los Angeles for the rest of the summer.
All Time High is a solid debut for the Montreal native, and if he continues to refine his style and further strengthen his abilities as a rapper and songwriter, there's no telling just how high his ceiling might be.
(+1 Records)On All Time High, Husser is at the height of his powers as a performer, fervently delivering bar after bar with an enthralling level of charisma, perfectly matching every instrumental present here. It's impressive that his style is malleable enough that his cartoonish cadence can perfectly accent a beat as boisterous as "Dwayne Carter Flow," or bring an instrumental as sparse as the DJ Coco-produced "Lil Big" to life.
It's clear that Husser is acutely aware of his strengths and what works for him at this junction in his career. This isn't a project with any underlying theme or concept, but a collection of playlist-ready songs that could all end up as singles. While most of them aren't chart-toppers, they could all be plugged into Spotify's RapCaviar playlist and fit right in.
The aforementioned "Dwayne Carter Flow" is a perfect example of this. It's an incredibly infectious track, with Husser delivering one of his most impressive flows on the record, seemingly playing keep-up with the rattling hi-hats laced into the instrumental. It's a solid homage to Lil Wayne, and the hook is an absolute earworm.
Another highlight is the album's closer "Calamari," a fantastic track whose instrumental has hints of A Tribe Called Quest's "Excursions" present in its DNA, while its verses couldn't be further from it. In different hands, the plucky bass line and boom-bap drums could have led to a more laid-back summer jam, but Husser takes it somewhere completely different, delivering some of his strongest verses. The track reaches a crescendo on the final verse as he comes through with an unexpected level of intensity and aggression, as the beat catches up to him through a subtle build-up. It's a fascinating moment, making for the LP's most unique song.
Moments like this are what make Husser an incredibly magnetic personality on the mic. If it weren't for his dynamic delivery and unmistakable energy, some of the more generic instrumentals here wouldn't do much, but he brings so much life to every song that even those with the blandest production become eventful.
The one big detriment of All Time High is the sheer amount of material on the record arriving ahead of release. With five songs released as singles in the past six months, the 10-song tracklist becomes underwhelming as a result, despite how enjoyable the songs are on their own. While it would be nice to go into a brand new album without already being familiar with half of it, All Time High is an enjoyable project. Rife with personality and filled with fluid flows and uptempo, bass-heavy beats, it will likely keep trunks knocking from Little Burgundy to Los Angeles for the rest of the summer.
All Time High is a solid debut for the Montreal native, and if he continues to refine his style and further strengthen his abilities as a rapper and songwriter, there's no telling just how high his ceiling might be.
