Denzel Curry’s new album Melt My Eyes, See Your Future is the sound of the mercurial Miami rapper leveling up. “This is my green lightsaber moment!” beams the 26-year-old, likening his evolution on this record to Luke Skywalker’s in Star Wars not just because it’s a record full of cinematic scope (anime and Akira Kurosawa are among its chief influences) but because he now no longer feels like a hothead apprentice. On each of the fourteen sumptuous tracks here, Denzel is operating with the force of a full Jedi master, slicing through bars with a dexterity, magic and control that would make Yoda blush. “It’s my best album, period,” insists the rapper, who went through intense personal lows to create this dazzling career high-point. “I won’t lie, the last few years in the pandemic have been hard. When quarantine hit, I suddenly realised I was always distracted before. I never sat with myself. I never got to deal with my problems for real.” On Melt My Eyes, See Your Future, those problems are processed in brave, boundary-breaking detail. There are “no tracks where I’m yelling. This time, I’m speaking,” Denzel explains. “I’m articulating my emotions better than ever before.” A lot of things have changed since the rap multi-hyphenate began blazing his trail in music. His dedication to emotional honesty isn’t one of them, however. After all, “you have to feel it to fuck with it,” as the rapper always says. On Melt My Eyes, See Your Future, that’s truer than ever before.