9/10
This guy just gets better and better. The only albino rapper I know of, Brother Ali is one of the underrated stars of Rhymesayers, my favorite hiphop label ever. This album, like his last, was produced completely by Ant of Atmosphere, who I've already expressed my love for in the Felt 3 review. The production is great. I really really hope some of this style carries over into the next Atmosphere album, and I could even see a little of it on the last Atmosphere album. I love rap production that utilizes real instruments instead of just computers. The first few tracks, and many more throughout the album, are packed with awesome guitar riffs and horn sections that really blow me away. Amazing production on some of those songs. The only song I didn't like the production on was "Breakin' Dawn", but with that said, it matched the topic of the song really well.
Ali is on fire, lyrically, just murdering every track on the album. Some tracks he's doing a little bragging, as he should be, about his rise to underground fame and things like that. There aren't too many of them to the point where you get sick of them, though. My personal favorite is the first song, "The Preacher". Others, though, he really shines as one of the better story-tellers I've heard in years. My two personal favorite story-telling songs on this album are "House Keys" and "Tight Rope". Another track, "The Travelers", is about slavery, which is a really hard topic to cover well and fairly, and Ali knows just how to do it.
I only have a few complaints about the album. I think it's a little bit too long. Actually, it's not even necessarily too long, it's just not even. The first half, for me, was way better than the second half, and so it seemed to drag a little towards the end. This wasn't helped by "Best@it", one of only 2 tracks I didn't really like, being near the end. The song features Freeway and Joell Ortiz, both of whom I don't care for. And in an album with no other features, I was just left wondering why this song was there. The positives FAR outway the negatives, though, and this album lands very very close (but sadly not in) my top 10 albums of the year. (The full list will be posted at the end of the year... I still have about 10 albums to listen to.)
I'm going to break my usual format here and post 3 tracks instead of 2, just because I can't choose between the 2 story-telling tracks I mentioned earlier. So here you go:
The Preacher
House Keys
Tight Rope
Sounds great, how different is Ant's production on this from When Life Gives You Lemons? That started to use a lot of piano, does this follow through with that?
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's a ton of piano on this... I'm sure there is some, but it doesn't stand out enough for me to remember it. The guitars and horns are really what do. As far as differences from When Life Gives You Lemons, I'd say that that album was more dark, laid-back, while this one has a lot more upbeat, celebratory type songs. So they're obviously totally different styles. Some of the same ideas carry over, though. It's definitely still an Ant production... you can tell.
ReplyDeleteAlright, cool I guess this goes into the big list of must gets. I was sucker for the piano thats why I asked lol. However horns are up my alley too.
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