Tom MacDonald: “See You Tomorrow” (Album Review)

For my second album of dipping my toes into Tom MacDonald’s discography I listened to was If LeAnn’s Son was miserably generic, then See You Tomorrow is generic to the point of being almost pure nothingness. While I think this album doesn’t have lows that are as low as LeAnn’s Son, that doesn’t mean much, when there’s also fewer highs. During my last Tom MacDonald review, I wrote about how a lot of his songs tend to be an unidentifiable mush, blending together without tracks having their independent identity. Somehow, this problem is even worse here.

I’ve listened to this album front to back again and again in different settings, but there was nothing I could do from having so little of it stick with me. While not to the record’s credit, I do find it genuinely impressing with how much of it is so unmemorable. LeeAnn’s Son had an interesting, albeit poorly handled, theme of MacDonald being more than a broken-hearted rapper, but there’s nothing remotely interesting that keeps your attention from track to track throughout See You Tomorrow. It’s mostly just a bland look into his party-filled lifestyle and unconvincing attempts at asserting his toughness. At best it’s boring and at worst it feels artificial. Of course it’s easy to tell just how many of the topics that MacDonald raps about don’t reflect his actual life, but there’s a problem when he’s trying to depict himself in a way that’s completely unbelievable. Even so, his exaggerations could be interesting at some level if there was anything more to it, but it doesn’t feel like MacDonald intentionally leans into it. It just is. And I would even go as far as to say that it feels exploitative for MacDonald to use hip-hop culture to bring attention to himself, while not having a basic understanding of this culture. Even disregarding this, there’s nothing MacDonald has to say that feels like it’s coming from him. It’s a huge flaw of this album that I can envision it being made by hundreds of other rappers. 

Additionally, the amount of pure gimmicks that MacDonald uses to try to stand out, only makes him look more basic. Although I did notice the heavy presence of auto tune and vocal effects on LeeAnn’s Son, they weren’t special enough for me to want to write about in-depth. But here, it showcases a clear problem with MacDonald’s work. He lacks a voice and has to rely on these effects, in order to present himself in a similar manner as other rappers in the music scene and as an attempt to offer something more than just his rapping. I would have appreciated the effort to enrich his music, if it wasn’t so shallow and an obvious effort to try to play the part of what he thinks a rapper is.

Despite being so incredibly generic, I do find it interesting how there’s almost a sense of identity from MacDonald here. The line, “Put my Uzis to the Adam like a speech impediment,” isn’t the most creative but there’s a level of playfulness to this bar that I can appreciate. However this type of writing is uncommon, as he follows up this bar with, “They don't want me dead or alive, they want me dead or want me dead”. Such a weak line lacks any weight because MacDonald has no swagger nor the confidence to sell it. We are forced to take how lame a lyric like this is at face value. At other times, there are lyrics that I nearly enjoy, but MacDonald is just not a strong enough writer to make them work and they end up not making sense. 

For all its flaws, there is one thing I can genuinely praise about See You Tomorrow. That is its penultimate track “How the West Was Won”. And I have more positive things to say about it, that’s not just the fact that it signals how the album is almost over. I could even criticize MacDonald for his questionable auto tuned vocals, but hey, they’re some of the best on the record, and we’ll take what we can get. But seriously, I found a real amount of enjoyment with this song, and I didn’t have to make (unreasonable) excuses to do so. The production is fluid and changing, never letting you stay bored for a second with how it expands and shrinks. MacDonald’s vocals here aren’t the best, but they’re definitely the best on the entire album, and he manages to do a sufficient job with following the melody. 

While this album was definitely a step down from LeeAnn’s Son, I think it surprised me more. This should be the textbook example of how getting more of the same could be awful. Even still, MacDonald managed to make one song that made me truly feel something. I wonder if across his vast discography, he has anything else like this. Maybe I’ll even hear something that’ll make me come around on him with the next album of his I have to listen to?

Favorite Tracks: How the West Was Won, Drive Me Crazy, Everything

Least Favorites: Greenday, Free Drugs, Cold Coffee, I’m So Crazy, From the Jump, Love Me to Death

Enjoyment: Low 3

Critically: Low 3

Arbitrary Number: 3.0/10