Coming off his last album, Big Sean has a lot to prove.  “Hall of Fame” was average at best, and downright embarrassing at it’s worst.  In order to prove that he deserves a spot on Kanye West’s “G.O.O.D Music” Label, he recently released “Dark Sky Paradise,” and it may just be his best release yet.

The album starts off with “Dark Sky (Skyscrapers)” and, while good, doesn’t really do anything exciting.  It’s not a bad song; it’s just not very memorable. However, after “Dark Sky (Skyscrapers)” comes “Blessings (feat. Drake)” and it is a doozy.  Sean and Drake spend the entire 4 minutes trading verses and coming out with all their rapping might.  If there’s one song that can prove that Big Sean can rap, it’s “Blessings.”

Even after the sheer impressiveness of “Blessings,”  Big Sean doesn’t slow down with his next song, “All Your Fault (feat. Kanye West).” Easily the best song on the album, “All Your Fault” has Sean and Kanye each dropping their own verse, followed by a third verse where both of them go at it.  The song’s editing makes it seem like the both of them are rapping one single verse together, and with a hook backed by an Auto-tuned Kanye, “All Your Fault” is sure to be a radio hit.

Speaking of radio hits, the next song on the album, “IDFWU” is the definition of a radio hit.  It also happens to be a fantastic one at that.  The whole song is about him telling a girl that he’s over her, but does it in the most Big Sean way possible.  It’s a fun song with some absolutely hilarious lines.  You’ve probably already heard it at every party that you’ve been to in the past few months, and you’ll probably hear it for a long time to come.

After “IDFWU,” the album starts to slack a little bit, but it may only seem that way because the previous songs are so amazing.  The second to last song, “One Man Can Change the World (feat. Kanye West & John Legend)” remedies this, with it’s uplifting message and calm, joyful beat.  It’s not the type of song to drive down the street blasting it loud out of your windows, but more of a “relax and dream” kind of song.  The song is followed by the appropriately named “Outro” which ends the album on a high note.

“Dark Sky Paradise is not all perfect, but what it does right, it does exceptionally well.  With songs that run the gamut from “Pure Bangers” to “Music your mom can listen to,” Big Sean manages to impress.  Let’s just hope that he can keep up the good work for his next album.