At this point, I’ve lis­tened to Lil Nas X’s debut album Mon­tero about five or six times all the way through. It’s both con­fi­dent and vul­ner­a­ble, and serves as a fan­tas­tic show­case of his tal­ent and range. It’s a mas­ter­piece of a debut album.

Lil Nas X flows effort­less­ly between gen­res. There’s pop and hip hop as expect­ed, but there’s even some indie rock vibes in there too. And yet, Lil Nas X is per­fect­ly at home in each dif­fer­ent sound.

But this album is so much more than music. It’s a com­ing of age moment. It’s a state­ment about Lil Nas X’s accep­tance and cel­e­bra­tion of him­self. And there­fore, it also feels like an accep­tance and cel­e­bra­tion of being gay for myself too.

I can’t rec­om­mend Mon­tero enough.

My favorites:

1. MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)
2. DEAD RIGHT NOW
3. INDUSTRY BABY (feat. Jack Harlow)
4. ONE OF ME (feat. Elton John)
5. DOLLA SIGN SLIME (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)
6. VOID