Potatohead People is the partnership of Canadian producers Nick Wisdom and AstroLogical. The two originally made their recording debut with an EP back in 2013, and their last full-length release, Big Luxury, came back in 2015. Now the Vancouver-Montreal duo comes back with a new full-length, Nick & Astro’s Guide To The Galaxy.

There’s a lot about this album that looks good on paper. Both Nick Wisdom and AstroLogical are talented producers with some solid releases under their belts that explore hip hop, R&B, and electronic music, and they’ve brought in some guests like Nanna.B, Kapok, Illa J, K-Maxx, Moka Only, and Trian Kayhatu, to spice things up. On paper, this album looks like it should be a fun party album for the summer time. In practice, however, the album falls pretty flat. Nick and Astro are working in some smooth jazz/R&B meets electro-boogie territory, which has the potential to be really fun or sexy, or both. Unfortunately, there’s just no life to this album. All of the grooves fall flat, there’s no riffs or melodies to get your attention, and no interesting percussion, either. It all just sounds pleasant enough to not offend anyone’s sensibilities, but then in turn becomes offensive because of it’s blandness. On top of all that, none of the guest artists do anything to save the album, either. Nanna.B has a nice quality to her singing voice, but there’s no sense of melody to “Morning Sun,” so her contributions get lost in the mix. Illa J and Moka Only have certainly made some good hip hop over the course of their careers, but their verses here could not sound more generic or phoned in. It all just add up to make an album that is beyond frustrating.

What if everyone came together to make an album, and everyone just shrugged their shoulders and said, “Eh? Good enough.” That’s what Nick & Astro’s Guide To The Galaxy sounds like. It just sounds like no cared or had any interesting ideas, and they just made an album anyway. I don’t know if someone got locked into a contractual obligation, but that’s the only explanation that makes sense. Otherwise, this just sounds lazy and uninspired, and it doesn’t even come close to living up to the potential of everyone involved with this project.