The myth of Pegasus dates back to Ancient Greece, where the flying horse was involved in some of the most intriguing tales of its time. Pegasus was capable of everything and symbolized divine inspiration and the journey to heaven. Now serving as a modern-day figure of endless imagination and spiritual freedom, the mythical creature is the namesake behind Trippie Redd’s third studio album “Pegasus.”

On “Pegasus,” Redd envisions a world without creative limits. Taking inspiration from the boundless creativity of the Pegasus myths, Redd doesn’t box himself into one genre on the project. The beginning of the album is about love, showing off Redd’s vulnerable side through dreamlike beats and softer vocals. As the project slowly picks up pace halfway through, Redd is helped out by some of the most in-demand features, including Young Thug and Future. After “Pegasus” reaches max hype, Redd slows it down and once again shows off his softer side on the album’s final few tracks.

At 26 tracks long, Redd has plenty of time to unlock his Pegasus-esque inspiration on this project. Yet, at times, it feels like he’s almost taking this infinite imagination too far. While there are standout tracks on each portion of the album, others almost feel disposable and have no repeat-listen value.

On the album’s more lovestruck portion, Redd shines while rapping over nostalgic yet spacey beats. He’s vulnerable on tracks like “Moonlight,” where he assures his girl, “I just wanna be with you.” “Love Scars 4” shows Redd’s personal growth in his outlook on love, as he contradicts the message of the first of his “Love Scars” series. While he used to not worry about chasing love, he now is embracing it and asking his girl not to give up on him.

As the album picks up the pace, Redd continues with the theme of love over a more upbeat production. On these tracks, he’s not so much professing his love for someone as he is flexing that he can make any girl love him. On “Personal Favorite,” Redd boasts he can take his girl anywhere, repeating “Tell me where to go.” The production on this track is arguably the album’s best, featuring an ethereal guitar produced by Heavy Mellow and CHASETHEMONEY. Even the latter’s producer tag adds to the track’s greatness, as it incorporates a bar from the late Juice Wrld saying “Chasin’ the money all day.” The track’s feature makes you do a double take and leaves you yearning for another iconic Redd-Juice Wrld collab. Nevertheless, fitting with its title, “Personal Favorite” is one of the album’s best tracks. 

Redd continues the upward trend on “V-12,” one of the most on-theme songs for “Pegasus.” Starting with an angelic piano and a countdown to blastoff, Redd fully moves on from his lovesick mindset and flaunts his selection of luxury cars. The best parts of this song, and of the project in general, are when the production is more stripped back, allowing Redd to exude more of the mystical vibe of the album’s namesake. Especially when the instrumentals on tracks like these are so airy, it sometimes feels like Redd is overshadowing the production rather than working together with it.

This theme pervades other songs on the album, most notably on “Weeeeee,” when Redd takes inspiration from the viral “whee!” meme. On the track’s outro, Redd replicates the meme’s infamous sound — an obnoxious, high-pitched “weeeeee” followed by maniacal laughing. Without this outro, “Weeeeee” could have been one of the project’s top tracks, especially given its Travis Scott vibe and delicately hypnotic guitar instrumental. Yet the track ultimately leaves listeners anxiously waiting to hit next before those obnoxious “weeeeees” ruin the beauty of the song’s production.

Overall, “Pegasus” is a mixed bag. Redd does address some of the criticism he’s faced with previous projects, like his last studio album “!,” where many felt he lacked a coherent theme, or “ALLTY3,” where some were unimpressed with the project’s overall monotony. Yet, in fixing these issues, he creates new ones. Instead of lacking one coherent theme, Redd opts for three distinct ones over the course of the project’s nearly hour and 15-minute runtime. This results in only a few tracks standing out on each portion of the project and the rest feeling like monotonous fillers, sometimes even blending together so much you don’t know when one begins and another ends.

It’s understandable that Redd is trying to channel the spirit of Pegasus and show off his infinite imagination by releasing an album of this length, but ultimately, I’d rather have seen Redd really focus his attention on the brilliantly produced songs and cut the others.

Aside from its symbolism of endless imagination, the myth of Pegasus also represents the divine order of things and even acts as a warning for mortal men to not aspire to a heavenly seat. It seems Redd only paid attention to one half of the myth — maybe he’d be better off staying on Earth rather than aspiring to be one with the heavenly gods.