''On to Better Things'' is the second studio album by Puerto Rican-born American rapper and singer-songwriter

Iann Dior Michael Ian Olmo (born March 25, 1999), known professionally as Iann Dior (stylized in all lowercase), is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer based in Texas. He is most notably well-known for his 2020 hit single " Mood", a collaboration with 24kGo ...

. It was released on January 21, 2022, through

10K Projects 10K Projects (also known as ''Ten Thousand Projects'') is an American independent record label founded in 2016. Distribution is handled by Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, a division of Universal Music Group. History 10K Projects was fou ...

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

was handled by several record producers, including Brian Lee,

Cashmere Cat Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for producing songs for artists including Kanye West, The Kid Laroi, Selena Gomez ...

Cirkut Henry Russell Walter (born April 23, 1986), known professionally as Cirkut, is a Canadian record producer and songwriter. He has co-produced and co-written for Dr. Luke, Katy Perry, Becky G, Ava Max, Nicki Minaj, R. City, The Weeknd, Kesha, Ciar ...

KBeaZy Keegan Christopher Bach (born April 20, 2001), known professionally as KBeaZy, is an American record producer, songwriter, and YouTuber. He quickly rose to fame in 2017 after reproducing the instrumental from XO TOUR Llif3 on YouTube and following ...

Nick Mira Nicholas Warren Mira (born August 25, 2000) is an American record producer from Richmond, Virginia, who is part of the producer collective Internet Money, a record label he co-founded with fellow producer Taz Taylor. He gained notoriety for dev ...

Omer Fedi Omer Fedi ( he, עומר פדי; born 25 March 2000) is an Israeli record producer, songwriter and guitarist from Tel Aviv. He has co-written, produced and performed on " Mood" by 24kGoldn ft. Iann Dior, "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" by Lil Na ...

, Taz Taylor and

Travis Barker Travis Landon Barker (born November 14, 1975) is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the rock band Blink-182. He has also performed as a frequent collaborator with hip hop artists, is a member of the rap rock group Transpla ...

among others. It features

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other p ...

s from

Lil Uzi Vert Symere Bysil Woods ( ; born July 31, 1995), known professionally as Lil Uzi Vert, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. They are characterized by their face tattoo, facial tattoos, facial piercings, eccentric hairstyles and androgynous ...

and

Machine Gun Kelly George Kelly Barnes (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954), better known by his pseudonym "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American gangster from Memphis, Tennessee, active during the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thomps ...

. The album peaked at number 28 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 17,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s in its first week.

Critical reception

''On to Better Things'' was met with generally favorable reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 68, based on five reviews. Kyann-Sian Williams of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying that it "bottles up that teenage angst as perfectly as the golden age of

pop-punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...

music".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Fred Thomas found "several tracks ("Heavy", "Heartbreak3r", "Regret") follow a similar

emo-rap Emo rap is a fusion genre of hip hop and emo music. Originating in the SoundCloud rap scene in the mid-2010s, the genre fuses characteristics of hip hop music, such as beats and rapping, with the lyrical themes, instrumentals, and vocals commo ...

style, but ''On to Better Things'' gets more interesting when Dior commits fully to exploring different approaches". Ims Taylor of ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'' wrote: "Complicate It", "Heavy", "Heartbreak3r", all standalone fine, but ultimately all bring the same contribution to the shape of ''on to better things'' without providing much else. Where he digresses though, he does so excellently, promising that maybe with the challenge of a feature or with the fire to push his sound a bit more, he could be great». Chris Saunders of '' Clash'' wrote: "there are moments where Dior shows his undoubted potential and those moments save this album from being completely mediocre, unfortunately, those moments don't come anywhere near often enough". Dani Blum of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' stated that the artist "stays vague and vacant throughout the album, invested in his feelings but short on interesting ideas".

Track listing

Personnel

* Dale Becker – mastering (1, 2, 4–15) * Mike Tucci – mastering (3) * Hector Vega – mastering (6, 12) *

Serban Ghenea Șerban Ghenea (born October 13, 1969) is a Grammy award-winning Romanian-Canadian audio engineer and mixer. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1969. In 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. He later attended ...

– mixing (1, 6, 10, 12, 13) * Edgard Herrera – mixing (2, 3, 8), engineering (9) * Teezio – mixing (4, 9, 14) *

Adam Hawkins Adam Hawkins (born July 1976) is an American recording and mix engineer. Life and career Hawkins was born in New Jersey, and later moved with his family to North Carolina. After graduating from high school he moved back to New Jersey to become a ...

– mixing (7, 11, 15) * Benjamin Thomas –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

(3) * Young Era – engineering (3, 10) * Ojivolta – engineering (4) * Mark Schick – engineering (13) * Ryan Cantu – engineering (14)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2022 albums Albums produced by Cirkut Albums produced by KBeaZy Albums produced by Nick Mira Albums produced by Omer Fedi Albums produced by Cashmere Cat Albums produced by Travis Barker Albums produced by Taz Taylor (record producer) 10K Projects albums