Following his bloated 2020 album Pegasus by just under a year, chart-topping rapper Trippie Redd's fourth studio album Trip At Knight is something of a return to form. Relatively lean at just 17 songs and less than 50 minutes running time, (or 18 if you're listening to the "Complete" edition that adds on only the Drake-assisted "Betrayal,") Trip At Knight doesn't drag to the point of exhaustion like many of Trippie's projects that followed his 2018 debut Life's A Trip. The songs clip by, dotted with exciting features but kept consistent with synth-heavy production that goes to more interesting places than Trippie's usual melodic trap instrumentals. Album standout "MP5" is a rush of anthemic synth tones and blown-out bass hits, and "Holy Smokes" features lively verses from Lil Uzi Vert and an backing track of vocal samples and bit-crushed synth tones that sound straight out of '80s video games. Trippie and Playboi Carti trade bars on the excellent, barely contained "Miss the Rage," and Ski Mask The Slump God turns on a possessed-sounding feature on the appropriately titled "Demon Time." The guest spots on Trip At Knight threaten to steal the spotlight, especially with posthumous material from late super stars Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion, but Trippie sounds inspired and wired on his own, to a much higher degree than on his past few belabored and tedious outings. Concise and brisk, Trip At Knight is one of the more focused Trippie Redd albums, and calls for repeat listening where some of the others were difficult to get all the way through. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi