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Kele – The Boxer

kele_0
21/07/2010 By In Music, Reviews
By Conor Heaney
After the release of Intimacy, the trend appeared clear; either Bloc Party were actually moving into this ‘alternative dance’ arena, or Kele was tearing loose and re-adjusting the rock-anchor which the band had built for themselves since Silent Alarm. The truth is though, that this solo departure for Kele does indeed appear to be the natural progression for himself and the band. Intimacy did seem too Kele-centric in an uncomfortable way for the other group members, a catalogue of what seemed to be Kele’s thoughts and the listing of Kele’s turmoils. (This is even more apparent, Flux now slots itself easily into Kele’s solo set. Whilst originally not on Intimacy, the track does appear as a bonus track on separate versions of A Weekend in the City and Intimacy, and is of this period of Bloc-Party-electronica.) At least now, with The Boxer, a spiky guitar-riff need not be incorporated simply as a bow to hardened Bloc Party listeners. This is where Kele can musically stretch out and indeed branch out into his own interests. It is successful in parts, clumsy in others, and overall an interesting offer from Mr Okereke.
The opening lyrics of the opening track Walk Tall, are of a military theme, “I don’t know what you’ve been told/ But this starts now walk tall walk tall.” – And the track itself appears to track Kele’s absorbing of this solo-ism, “I’m getting taller,” “Cut your ties to the past and wave them goodbye.” As well as this, Walk Tall’s production is the heaviest on the album, there is no ‘easing-in’ as it were, for those unsure of what to expect. With this, it severs the ties between Kele and Bloc Party for the album. This does indeed appear to be Kele’s reasoning. In an interview for CHARTattack, he said, “These were ideas that I’ve just had in the last year, just ideas in my head, just coming to life and there was no one else to thank for it. It was just me, and that was good. It was like, ‘This is me, and I’m proud of it.’” You can call it solipsistic, or simply introspective, or self-serving, or (if you wish to be kind) revealing. This usually shy front-man finds a fitting venue for this solipsism on The Boxer.
On the Lam appears to be Kele and a pitch-shifter of some description, with lyrics oozing of regret and disdain, “I’ve finally flipped out and I’m hiring a detective/ To find out where I’ve been, where I’ve been.” - amidst a moderately impressive backing track; but where this track needs remarking is from around 3:30 onwards; where the listener is introduced to the sound of simply a failed telephone call with the looping message, “Please hang up and try again.” - It will be a continuing theme that I will come back to.
First single Tenderoni was chosen for fairly obvious reasons. It allows him to combine the type of lyrics he spoons out with ease, “Every time that we kiss/ It seems you’re holding back/ Don’t be so quick, to pull away,” with the backing track that everyone has already heard. It is not a bad song, and it is an effective development (or so it seems) of Wiley’s Wearing My Rolex. It’s an unavoidable comparison, and one is not sure whether this issue has been brought up with Kele. The song is clubbish, which is what he seems to be in-part aiming for, but for what is positive about the song, is at least equalled by its almost plagiarised production. This sour taste is not sweetened with The Other Side; combining uninspiring lyrics, “I am turning to the man, I used to be.” and a clanging and repetitive and bland piece of production. Second single Everything You Wanted is the first on this offering that feels as if it could been on Intimacy. Kele lets his voice soar (as he can) in his own slightly whiney, but altogether controlled vocals, “I could have given you everything you wanted.” – Lyrics which directly contradict his proclamation of maturity on the succeeding track The New Rules, “I used to want to rule the world/ But now I just get by,” “I’m learning to be laid back about certain things,” “There’s nothing to prove anymore, nothing to lose/ I burned away all my desire.” – It appears to be a slight sequel to Intimacy’s stand-out track Signs (in style rather than lyrical theme) – but Kele seems unable on this to recreate the moving melody and crescendo, the laden xylophone twisted with what seem to be painful lyrics, “I believe in anything/ That brings you back, home to me.” So whilst The New Rules is particularly impressive on the standalone album The Boxer, Kele is weighed down somewhat by what the listeners knows Kele can do when writings songs of this nature. It is also on this track that the telephone-operator-sample is fully utilised. It seems an odd concept to develop on, possibly knowingly contradicting his reflective lyrics with the continuous inclusion of this obsessive loop; but it is open to interpretation.
Stand-out track on the album is certainly Rise. A continuous drum-machine beat with a light xylophonish melody opens the track, as Kele almost religiously invites us into the song, “Brothers, sisters come with me/ Into the light.” and he assures us, “You are stronger than you think,” as the production is layered, layered again, stripped down, crescendos are added, the tempo moves from adagio to allegro; and a thudding sythenthisised loop takes control as female voice tells us, “I’m taking over,” before the song explodes into a meshy piece of expressionism, sounding hazy and haphazard but ultimately controlled and intended. This is what Kele can offer, variance and originality and lyricism and development; but so often he simply does not reproduce the brilliance of this track.
All The Things I Could Never Say, however laboriously titled, is a cool and chilling track which may have worked better as an album closer, sounding almost as a fitting requiem for The Boxer. Whilst at times lyrically clumsy, “The bottles are empty in the cabinet/ I noticed my first grey hair, today.” – It also has in itself nuggets of introspection which Kele thrives on serving, “Where did you stay last night? / You didn’t come home/ I’m spending all of my time, waiting on your call.” Adding to this, the chorused harmonies towards the song’s end are restrained and mature. A similar effect is attempted on Yesterday’s Gone, “Make a space for all the good times/ Store them in your heart,” – and are, to an extent, achieved; despite its less impressive production.
So, Kele, ‘going-it-alone’ as a boxer does, hence the title, has produced an interesting effort. He has succeeded in giving himself a separate identity. This is, in no way, a Bloc Party album. It is very listenable, and is layered enough to give the listener more over time; but there is something missing. It is not a guitar solo nor anything Bloc Party-ish, but possibly more varied and experimental production, or something of this vein. When, in the closing track, Kele tells us, “This is your moment/ You got to take it in,” it may in fact be more his moment than the listeners, but this album is worth it. This should not be the last solo effort we hear from this man. A brave endeavour – when so often frontmen of bands branch off in search of a new ‘direction’ and instead produce indirection; Kele’s style has some substance to it.

Lyrics – 7/10

Instrumentation – 6/10

Production – 7/10

Giving this album 67%.

Foals – Total Life Forever

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06/07/2010 By In Music, Reviews

Although not generally credited with the tag, or at least it is a tag that is widely disputed, Foals for many signified an introduction to math rock. Certainly not as focused on the development of this genre as Slint, or Sweep the Leg Johnny, or Battles (three bands which need to be checked out if not known) were or are; the band do indeed have their own roots in this particular brand of rock. Yannis and Jack are both former members of math rock group The Edumund Fitzgerald. So if not math rock, Foals (predominantly now through their obsession with angular guitar notes) are certainly math-y. In Antidotes for many this half-way-house constituted a bizarre album, flimsy and unsure of its own status or position. Whilst it charted well, and whilst it churned out memorable songs such as Red Sock Pugie and Cassius; it seemed a style that had its very definite limits. These limits are what Total Life Forever has the job of exploding, changing, or at least developing on. It does all three.

The album opener Blue Blood, does its best to ease in (as it were) experienced Foals listeners to the new verbosity and swagger on display in Total Life Forever. A looping and characteristic guitar hook is crushed out of existence by the booming and foreboding effect of the intense (and conventionally rock) bass which takes control of the song. There is something different also; is Yannis singing? So it appears. The vocals of Antidotes relied heavily upon chorused-shouting backed up and given a spine with melodic and mesmerising guitar-loops. Take Heavy Water, “We, communicate, communicate/ And she dreams of empty swings around/ We communicate/ With vampires and their guns,” – such lyrics are barely noticed unless given attention, and whilst Blue Blood is not a huge step up (Gareth Campesinos! he is not), an improvement is obvious, “Of all the people, I hope’d it’d be you/ To come and free me take me away/ To show me my home/ Where I was born/ Where I belong.” What can be in part affirmed therefore, is that Blue Blood is Heavy Water with more developed lyrics and a more conventional (and more effective) crescendo and eventual instrumental-strip-down; it is more mature. And this indeed is the theme throughout, Foals have matured, as has their sound, as has their production, as has their song development. The third single, Miami, for me in part echoes The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry. The song structure is extremely similar, with a lulled intro and outburst of a guitar hook which is only replayed at the chorus; as well as this there is a similar lyrical theme. Where Robert Smith says, “I would tell you that I loved you/ If I thought that you would stay/ But I know that it’s no use/ That you’ve already gone away,” Yannis pens, “Oh, you betrayed me, you gave it away/ You don’t mind picking up salt/ To rub in my wounds.” It may seem a slight connection but there is certainly something Cure-y about this third single. A similar pattern is followed on the slightly more impressive title track, but lyrics remain a weak point for Yannis, “I know a face/ Who I can show my true colours/ To your arms into your arms/ I will go, when I’m low/ ‘Cause total life forever/ Will never be enough.” - With this slightly more stripped-down-style, and with more emphasis on Yannis and his singing, inevitably more focus will be placed on his lyrics. For the most part, they remain uninspiring or so dense that they appear almost to be simply slotted in there. In truth, the lyrics appear positively clumsy.

With Black Gold Foals have produced a song which is certainly single-worthy. Its hypnotic guitar and actually impressive tag line, “The future, is not what it used to be,” serve to give the song a structure and style not before created by the band. It creates an atmosphere which was either too-much-there or not-at-all-there on Antidotes perfectly, and the band impressively hold back on the all-too-obvious noise explosion which they so usually succumb to. They restrain themselves, and it is hugely to the songs benefit – as it creates a prolonged euphoria lasting for almost the entirety of the second half of the song. This same idea is replicated on leading single Spanish Sahara. Early live versions of this song emerged around April of 2009, and whilst a huge style shift was obvious, the song seemed (to me) hugely weak by virtue of Yannis’ voice not actually being that strong. He was drowned out by a talking crowd too often who simply did not recognise the song. The studio version though, is mesmerising for this same reason. There is a reverence given by the band members as they allow Yannis to ‘go it alone’ as it were, “As I see you standing there, like a lilo losing air,” (For me this line’s allure was soon rescinded when I heard the eerily similar opening line of closing track What Remains, “Oh, I see you in your cobra nest/ All dressed up in your Sunday best,” – whether this is intentional or from a lack of ability to create something completely different I am not sure) for most of the song. The song’s minimalism of this sort is matched only by the maturity by which it is developed. Intricately layered, and ultimately (like Black Gold) restrained in its explosion. (Early live versions actually had a small guitar solo from about 4:15 onwards, this is delayed until around 4:33 in the studio version, is consequentially multiplied, but then ultimately cut much shorter than the early version. It is a small, but hugely effective change which characterises the perfectionism that seems to be developing in the band’s approach.) Foals have here created a track a world away from the eventual second single This Orient, which seems to be an attempt (and a successful one) of their own type of summer-anthem. The thudding drums, auto-tuned vocals, chorused intricacies and harmonies ooze of the type of brilliance Foals can achieve when it all ‘clicks’, “It’s your heart, your heart/ That gives me, this Western feeling.”

From Spanish Sahara, through This Orient, Fugue and After Glow Foals have crushed in the middle of their second album, their most impressive song sequence. Each acts as a blazon to their developing range of abilities. From Spanish Sahara’s moving development, to This Orient’s intensity, to Fugue’s slight turn into a light sort of psychedelica, to After Glow’s passion and chants in unison; here is a sequence which (to plagiarise a term) form a palisade of songs which answer the critics of Antidotes. The remaining three songs are in effect a recovery from the preceding four, a grand, melodic, strung-out and stripped down wind down, “So you my dear, shouldn’t fear what lies below/ It’s just bones. / And I’ve been to the darkest place you know/ It’s just bones.”

Ultimately, Foals have become more conventional on Total Life Forever. They have made their sound more user-friendly. They have ventured more often to the actual bottom ends of their guitars. They have decided to giving singing a chance, and to develop some decently worded lyrics. A step towards conventionality does not always bode well for bands who form cultish followings in the way Foals have – but this slight mature step by Yannis, Jack, Edwin, Walter and Jimmy has more than enough about it to arrest hardened listeners, and to capture new ones – they are a better band for it.

As with rap albums, singing/lyrical band-based albums such as these need to be evaluated in their own way. For me a good way of rating albums such as these is by rating Lyrics (/10), Instrumentation (/10) and Production (/10). Therefore:

Lyrics – 5/10

Instrumentation – 8/10

Production – 9/10

Therefore I would give this album 73%.

Drake – Thank Me Later

ThankMeLater
24/06/2010 By In Music, Reviews

by Conor Heaney

I do not think it is unfair to include Drake in the emerging ‘genre’ – if it can even be called that – who are showing direct and obvious influence from Kanye West’s so-called ‘Pop Art’ album 808′s and Heartbreaks. Whilst Kanye unsurprisingly was pugnacious enough to lay claim to the creation of a new genre of music; Drake replicated and enforced this pugnacity in not even attempting to develop too deeply on this influence, and through the titling of his album as Thank Me Later. This is where such arrogance ends though, as Drake actual lyrical content is a world away from the verbosity on display from Chicago’s genre creating representative, and has more likeness to Chicago’s former hip-hop mainstay – Common.

That is not to relate this actual style of Common and Drake though, as the two have their own tinge of originality(much more so in Common’s early material). Drake’s own style is where he is quite apt to display his verbal dexterity and musical flexibility and pragmatism. His most obvious writing method is that of conveying a seemingly mature and reflective message, but arresting the listener’s attention with the deployment of clever punchlines. The first lyrics in the first song is the first time this is done:

“Money just changed everything, I wonder how life without it would go/ From the concrete who knew that a flower would grow/ Lookin’ down from the top and it’s crowded below/ My fifteen minutes started an hour ago.”

This reflective tone which can ironically combine humility and confidence is one which continues throughout the album. Drake appears (unlike most) to have something interesting (or at least different) to say. His casual solipsism is given an alluring twist when it is coupled with the ingredient of seemingly genuine modesty, “I’m just young and unlucky I’m surprised you couldn’t tell.” The third track on the album, The Resistance, shows the Kanye West influence most obviously of all the songs on offer here. On his 2009 mixtape So Far Gone, Drake echoed Kanye’s Welcome to Heartbreak with Houstatlantavegas. Here, Drake seems to be plagiarising more from Say You Will. It has to be said though, Drake’s ability to sing and rap (and Kanye’s slight lack there of in comparison) makes up for this lack of originality. Seemingly flaccid lines such as, “I avoided the coke game and went with Sprite instead,” for me show an intelligence and an appreciation of irony. Such a line does in fact have an underlying significance in that Drake does not just conform to the populist, or conformist models of what a rapper should be talking about. His focus seems to be on on mature issues; this does deviate sporadically but a breath of fresh air it remains.

Drake ends The Resistance by saying, “I’m in it ’til it’s over,” - intentionally done as the next song on the album is the lead single Over. It marks a slight tonal shift. This is an obvious single song. The song has clubbish overtones and Drake knowingly betrays the reflective tone  of the opening track by embracing the hazy hedonism that it’s a main feature of the album, “What am I doin’?/ Oh yeah that’s right, I’m doin’ me/ I’m doin’ me/ I’m livin’ life right now mayne, and that’s what imma do ’til it’s over.” This tonal shift is continued in the slightly more impressive Show Me a Good Time. Kanye actually produced this track and it shows, the scratches and looping piano are a slight throwback to Kanye’s old production. A surprising reference to ancient Egyptian religion is made, “I’m the Osiris of this shit right now,” - which is worth noting if noticed. The hook in this song and the next (Up All Night) though, are thoroughly uninspiring. Drake seems much more comfortable with softer ‘Pop Art’ like beats which allow his voice to be focused on and accentuated. This idea is further intensified for me in the following song Fancy (Typically, Swizz Beatz lets you know he produced the song consistently with a dire chorus.), when the song softens in the second half and Drake is allowed an almost a cappella  chance to save the song, he does so effortlessly.

The highlight of the album for me is Shut it Down featuring The-Dream; the two styles compliment eachother cordially, and the two exchange punchlines, “Ice-cream conversations/ They all want the scoop.” [The-Dream] - “You feel the hours pass/ Until’ you find somethin’ / I feel like when she moves/ The time doesn’t.”  [Drake]. The two do this throughout as the song crescendos and explodes into the final chorus. The song itself seems to track the progression of a night, at the beginning Drake raps, “Put those fuckin’ heels on and work it girl/ Let that mirror show you what you’re doing,” and at the end this switches into an attempted verbal striptease, “What can I do/ To make you stay/ I know it’s gettin’ late girl but I don’t want you to leave/ You tell me you’re just not the type/ You want to do this right/ And I’m not tryna say I don’t believe you/ But I refuse to feel ashamed/ And if you feel the same/ Does waiting really make us better people?/ Take those fuckin’ heels off it’s worth it girl/ Nothin’ is what I can picture you in.”

Up to this point Drake’s lyrics have been partitioned between either reflection or hedonism. Topics at hand either being relationships or intense decadence. This slightly changes on the Jay-Z featured Light Up, where Drake uncharacteristically delves into a slight reference to rap gangsterism. The beat itself gives a dark tonal shift and Drake seems to be voicing his awareness of this strand of this music industry. Lines such as “I’ve been up for 4 days gettin’ money both ways,” directly contradict his earlier message of choosing Sprite-over-coke, which make his content here in comparison to most of the rest of the album quite weak. Drake’s lyrical strength lays in his ability to make easy to relate to, ‘bourgeois hip-hop’ almost. He cannot, and usually does not, delve into the violent topics so ubiquitous in rap albums, and it both suits him and works to his advantage. Acronymistic, or possibly initialistic witticisms such as, “DRAKE just stand for Do Right And Kill Everything” are refreshing and seemingly much more intelligent than Jay-Z’s, “I once was/ Cool as the Fonz was/ But these bright lights turned me into a monster,” or Lil’ Wayne’s, “Eugh, that’s nasty/ Yes I am Weezy but I ain’t asthmatic.” This is what makes Drake’s album not just listenable and enjoyable, but actually interesting. Very few rappers on their first albums can brush off major features such as the ones already noted, as well as T.I. and Young Jeezy. Their verses are only necessary in that they show Drake to be very much at the same lyrical level as them (Of course it will take more than one album to see if this can be continued, but the potential is certainly there, as Drake will no doubt mature and develop his style, lyricism and flow).

So Drake, emerging quickly out of the blocks from his initial explosion, to the development and production of a genuinely impressive album; has set himself a standard to live up to here. The album is predominantly produced by his long-standing producer 40 (Noah Shebib), but even in the final track, Thank me Now, Timbaland’s production is not obvious – Drake makes it work for him. This is the same for the Kanye’s tracks, and eventually the same for the Swizz Beatz track(though this is the worst produced on the album). So to finish;

Lyrics – 9/10

Content – 8/10

Production – 8/10

Features – 3/5

Giving it 80%.

Eminem – Recovery

Eminem
22/06/2010 By In Reviews

June 21st. This (Gregorian) date markedly is linked with the Summer Solstice: the sun reaching its highest apparent point in this our Earthly sky; the sun-god reaching its metaphorical ‘peak’ if you will. In 2010, the USA and the UK had on this date the chance to purchase Eminem’s 7th studio album, Recovery; and to attempt a terse work-around to give my original astronomical and calendrical based point at least slight weight – it is where Eminem’s latest demeanor assumes a deity-like status which had not been in whole apparent before.

What Recovery is, in brief; is a dualism of reflection and solipsism(though the two are not too distinct). The title itself suggests that Eminem feels as if he has emerged unscathed and triumphant from his dual problem of his over-reliance on certain drugs, and his lack of musical inspiration on Relapse and (moreso) Encore. Marshall takes a new line in this offering, throwing off the shackling structure of his previous albums. That is to say, all his albums up until this point (aside from Infinite, an album recorded before the millennial explosion of Eminem) had followed a similar pattern. Do we see an opening skit, such as the infamous Public Service Announcement 2000 on The Marshall Mathers LP? We do not. Do we see the by-now expected continuation of the Steve Berman skits? (In Relapse Steve prophetically questioned Eminem’s latest offering, “Do I really need to hear it? Let me guess. Another album about poor me? ‘I’m so famous it has ruined my rich little life, I’m such a tortured artist; let me make music about it, and my tragic lovelife!’ Am I onto something here?”) We do not. Eminem appears to feel as if he has moved past this. It could well have been a smart move. Whilst The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show were three albums which gave Eminem his rightful position at the forefront of rap; his succeeding two albums suffered hugely from failing to continue this upward gradient(and indeed, continuing the thematic recurrences of the skits mentioned for example, served to make it extremely easy to compare the newer offerings to old ones). So, Recovery, renamed from Relapse 2, is a new start and a new type of offering from Eminem. Or at least that is how it is set up.

This is not entirely lived up to. The opening track, Cold Wind Blows; opens I feel, extremely strongly. Eminem’s actual skills as a writer of multi-layered, multi-syllabic and high tempo rhymes is uncontested and unrivaled. But really, however well this rhymes, surely Eminem can do better than rhyme this:

“Bitch you don’t fuckin’ think I know that you sucked dick, dummy?/ You get your butt kicked, fuck all that love shit, hunny. Yeah I laugh when I call you a slut, it’s funny.”

As will become a theme in this album – it sounds amazing, but it reads rather flatly. Eminem’s ability to write intelligent, thoughtful and meaningful songs has always been something that partitioned him from others; but when he descends into piffle such as this he is cheating both the listener and himself. That is not to say that such reflection is non-existent in Recovery. In Talkin’ to Myself - one of songs with better production on the album – the listener is allowed such access:

“Hatred was flowin’ through my veins. On the verge of goin’ insane. I almost made a song dissin’ Lil’ Wayne…/ Anyone who was buzzin’ back then could’ve got it, / Almost went at Kanye too/ God it feels like I’m going psychotic./ Thank God that I didn’t do it. I’d have had my ass handed to me, and I knew it.”

This is exactly the type of thing which can make Eminem so listenable. He admits that a lot of his own bravado can indeed be pure attention-seeking. He tells us he doesn’t feel entirely comfortable with his last two albums, “The last two albums didn’t count/ Encore I was on drugs/ Relapse I was flushing them out.” – How convenient you might say (and honest?). Though listeners may well remember in Relapse where Eminem more or less said that in a few years Encore will be considered a classic in the same vein as his previous albums (This proclamation came on the bonus track Careful What You Wish For – “Encore just didn’t have the caliber to match it/ I guess enough time just ain’t passed yet/ A couple more years that shit’ll be Illmatic.”). Now, he reverts on his? Eminem effectively dilutes his resolve to say that in fact, critics were right to call Encore a loss of form – to call Relapse an accent-infested-name-dropping embarrassment? I am not sure if I believe him(or rather, I refuse to). I personally, am a huge fan of Relapse and I felt uneasy with Eminem here, it seems to me as if he would only say this because a lot of people want him to, and for me; him taking his moral and artistic weight away from all his work since 2002 (when The Eminem Show was released) is not what a new, ‘recovered’ Eminem needs to be doing, or indeed should be doing in any sense.

That aside – there appears to be two separate voices on this record. We have Eminem’s maniacal flow – witnessed in songs such as On Fire, Won’t Back Down (Featuring…Pink?), Cinderella Man, So Bad, Almost Famous and Here We Go. We also have his patented intensely reflective songs (He succinctly sums himself up in Going Through Changes when saying, “I sincerely/ Apologise if all that I sound like is/ I’m complainin’/ But life keeps on complicatin’”) which emerges most obviously in the lead single Not Afraid. Where this album comes to life though, is where these two aspects fuse and merge; creating a cathartic like experience where Eminem appears to be actually ‘recovering’ (to succumb to cliché).  Whereas Not Afraid appears clumsy, “Fuck the world/ Feed it beans/ It’s gassed up if it thinks it’s stoppin’ me.” - songs such as Going Through Changes (which uses a nice Black Sabbath sample), 25 to Life and the long-awaited Proof song You’re Never Over are particular impressive, and are certainly stand-outs.

My own personal favourite on the album falls under neither of these banners. Seduction appears to be using the same type of language I criticised above on the opening track, “She’s on my dick because I spit better than you/ What you expect her to do?” - My own personal inclination though, or rather supposition, is; is that the song appears to be one grand metaphor for the ‘rap game’ in and of itself(or is this obvious?). Similar to how NaS and Busta Rhymes animalised the rap game on NaS untitled album on the track Fried Chicken – Eminem appears to be anthropomorphising it in the female form in Seduction. There is certainly a satire on Jay-Z in this song. Playing on Jay-Z’s new method of ending each line with ‘Aww’ as on D.O.A., Eminem does the same in an impressive rhyme explosion on this track (also, he satirises Jay-Z’s famous disc-changer line here too), “There’s a seven-disc-CD-changer in the car/ And I’m in every single slot, and you’re not (Aww)/ I’m that logo on that Dallas Cowboy Helmet (a star)/ And I’m not about to sit back and  just keep rhyming one syllable (Naw).” This continues and forms what is for me, the most impressive spurt of lyricism on the album and indeed, since The Eminem Show.

For rap albums such as these, the best way to judge it would be (I feel) to give separate ratings to different aspects of the album, in order to give it a certain score. These are 1. Lyrics(/10); 2. Content(/10); 3: Production(/10); and 4: Features(/5).

1. Lyrics – 8/10

2. Content – 6/10

3. Production – 6/10

4. Features – 3/5

So to finish laconically – I would give this (on no authority) 66%.

Conor.