German producer Pawcut has been putting out music for several years now. The last time we checked in with him was back in 2015, when he released his album Maverick. Now he comes back again with Radio Juicy to release another full-length, God’s Plan.

God’s Plan starts strong, and Pawcut works quickly to establish an overall tone for the album, one with crisp drum hits and lots of jazz piano, guitar, and trumpet. This might sound familiar, but it’s also tempered with some vocal samples, both manipulated and not, discussing the idea of what God’s plan is for us. The first half of the album is the strongest, especially when we get the beautiful and captivating vocals of Ella Mae on “Spin Me Round.” Everything from the melodies to the rhythms are all sounding great as a soundtrack to this religious pondering, even when things get switched up and we get some nice narrative rhymes from Zen-Zin on “Walking in the Rain.” However, as work our way through the second half of the album, the length of the album becomes a bit of a hinderance. Coming in at just under an hour in length, what was enjoyable at first starts to sound a little monotonous, and the guest appearances aren’t quite as inspired. It’s a shame, since it starts off so strong, but editing down an album like this can be a tough but necessary task, especially with instrumental albums. It takes strong melodic and rhythmic work with enough variety to keep you interested, but enough of a motif to tie it all together, which Pawcut was able to achieve through the first part of the album. Unfortunately, by stretching out the album as much as he did, he begins to repeat himself a little. Finally, after some great and sparing use of guest appearances on the first ten tracks, we get more appearances on the second half that just feel more random and disconnected.

God’s Plan is a tale of two halves for Pawcut. He’s a really talented producer, and he’s given us some great instrumental hip hop with this album. Next time he’ll just need to find a way to give us a more concise and focused listening experience, so that we can just hear him at his best.