The sound of Come Home the Kids Miss You, in turn, is about as sophisticated and interesting as a Daniel Arsham sculpture, neat at a glance but vapid upon any extended interrogation. Musically, it’s unfulfilling, lacking standout melodies or exciting rhythms. The album, for the most part, consists of a monochromatic palette of generic “smooth” beats, one just bleeding into the next. Unlike them, however, Harlow does not make bright songs on Come Home the Kids Miss You. (The worst might be “Can’t lie, I’m on Angus Cloud nine” because “You know I like to dictate things, Kim Jong” is so obviously stupid that it must be a joke.) His straightforward approach is similar to those of fellow Southerners Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby, the sort of bars-first-but-also-make-it-pop throwback rappers who maybe would not have stood out in the commercial landscape of the 2000s, but are anomalies in the day and age of vibes. He does not have a definable trait or tick that could be parodied, preferring to keep things tidy and also make terrible allusions. Harlow’s ability to rap well somehow acts as a hindrance to his ability to make good songs.
In the music video, for example, he stands tall in a tank top holding three dogs, like he’s DMX, and he raps, “You ain’t one of my dogs, why do you hound us?” He winks, sneers, and mockingly snaps his hand as he mouths, “ hound,” but any implied aggression or magnetism is lost on the recorded track. He is too casual on the song, as if he’s afraid to veer away from his tried and true flow for something more expressive. Despite an air of pomp, lead single “Nail Tech” is limp, largely due to its chintzy beat and Harlow’s reluctant vocals.
Stripped of an appropriate foil, however, Harlow’s swagger is muted. Next to Lil Nas X, Harlow delivered one of the best verses of his career, too, his down-the-middle approach an appropriate complement to his co-star’s more fluid delivery.
Just about two years later, he made his first good song and true hit, “ Whats Poppin” then, after releasing his debut studio album, the Harlow hype machine went into hyperdrive with “ Industry Baby,” the Lil Nas X single where Harlow dutifully performed the role of the straight man in the proudly gay music video. By 19, he made “ Dark Knight,” the song that launched a major-label bidding war for his talents and, ultimately, landed him a deal with the once-promising Atlantic imprint Generation Now. Harlow’s origin story is repeated often: At age 12, he decided he wanted to be a rapper and got to work, practicing, recording, and selling CDs at school.
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