Released: 2025
Genres: Electronic Dance Music, Hyperpop, Digicore
The Musiquarium’s Stardust Review Score: 5 out of 10
Stardust finds Danny Brown sober, having swapped out alcohol and drugs for working out, hyperpop, digicore and a pinch of 1990s dance fetishism. Aside from the positive messaging of curbing bad habits, this album is without a doubt Danny Brown’s most disappointing album, though I appreciate the drive to try something new. What I don’t appreciate though, is how dreadful of a listen this was.
Book of Daniel is a red herring, as it features guitars, an instrument that doesn’t reappear anywhere else on the album — it also sounds like it was recorded inside of a toilet. As for the rest of the album, it’s often migraine-inducing hyperpop (basically Dance Dance Revolution music) and an abundance of infernal vocals and annoying features; there are also these spoken word sections throughout that it could have done without.
There is a good song buried inside of Copycat, but all the voices that aren’t Danny’s wreck that potential. The production in Starburst is jarring, sounding like windshield wiper blades on a dry windshield. Flowers and Baby are unbearable. Green Light has unintentionally hilarious and excruciatingly annoying vocals from Frost Children, ruining itself from the very first second.
Lift You Up sounds like music from a nineties workout video, which your disinterested substitute P.E. teacher had you dance to, in lieu of teaching an actual lesson. There’s some lunatic screaming his brains out throughout 1999, like he forgot that Y2K was just a hoax. The End is nine minutes of drum and bass, with grating vocals in some other language (Ukrainian?), though there’s still one more song to endure after it.
All of these songs are quite irritating and the entire project is too feature-heavy, resulting in Danny Brown feeling sidelined on his own project. Every song gave me a reason to skip to the next one, most of which was often caused by the features. Most of the features are trans artists, though I disliked Stardust before I knew that (before you accuse me of “transphobia”). Honestly, this doesn’t even sound like a Danny Brown album most of the time, and instead sounds like it was made for somebody else, with Danny just tacked on at the last minute.
Did substances give Danny Brown’s music substance or has success clouded his judgement? I’m happy for him for sobering up and experimenting, but this album was both disappointing and awkward, with its production feeling like a drill in your ears at times. I’m assuming an album like this would have its niche, but this is certainly not for my musical tastebuds. It seems that Danny Brown released two great albums in 2023 at the cost of releasing a bad one in 2025.
For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Danny Brown on Discogs.
Back to the 2025 Album Guide or the Danny Brown Album Reviews page.
Written by Brett Nippard
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