Trip Lee & Lecrae Reviews

I've almost come to view Reach Records albums the way I view Pixar films. Every new one is different from the last but bound to be high quality. I was very exited at the thought of Trip Lee's Between Two Worlds album. His guest spots are usually a highlight on other rappers albums - so a full album of his own is bound to be awesome right? Well I'm sad to say that's not the case.

Between Two Worlds

Judging by the Amazon reviews I may be the only person on the planet that thinks this way, but for me nothing on the album hangs together right. The overall tone of the record seems a little dark, beats are mostly uninspiring, too many tracks filled with noodly gypsy violin solos. The raps themselves are either well done but targeting topics that have been done better before or have a fresh theme or angle (like confession in Snitch or the resurrection in Invasion) that Trip doesn't really handle in any interesting way.

Sadly it makes me want to paraphrase the comment ascribe to Dr Johnson "Your record is both good and original, but the parts that are good aren't original and the parts that are original aren't very good". The production seems sonically cluttered even though on some tracks there's very little on there and occasionally Trips vocals are almost drowned out by the track.

I can't put my finger on what is wrong with this album. I've listened to it so much trying to will myself to like it more that I've ended up liking it even less. Trip almost sounds like a young guy who is not ready to carry his album yet - but this is his third.

The one ray of light is the first part of Twisted. For about a minute and a half the track motors along with a passion, energy and originality that seems to have bypassed the rest of the set. Racking my brains to think what was different about this track, it hit me.

The first section of the song features Lecrae all by himself.

Rehab

Which brings me to Rehab by Lecrae. He seems to have a first among equals status among the Reach Records guys, so any CD by 'Crae is a big deal. And he doesn't disappoint.

Every track is packed with passion, dazzling artistry and deep theology. Some things grab you first or second time around but there are lines that on the tenth listen suddenly jump out at you as you realise how profound an insight he has just managed to slot into two lines.

There are some huge tracks on this record (High, Divine Intervention, Walking On Water) but first place must go to 40 Deep. Over a track that sounds like an outtake from Kill Bill or Enter The Dragon we get 3 body slamming verses from Crae, Tedashii & Trip Lee. And back to form Trip shines (as does Tedashii - singing!).

If this record stood on Lecrae's rapping alone it would be straight out one of 2010’s top albums, but there are a couple of things that let it down. Biggest of all are the hooks.

A chorus on a rap tune is supposed to give you something memorable to grab onto as the millions of words speed by you. The hooks for the most part fail here in an epic way. Tracks with a rap hook (40 Deep, Used To Do It Too, High) are fine, but the tracks with a sung chorus just ramble, have too many words, little definable shape (God Is Enough, ‘Nuff), and sometimes seem unsure about what the title is (Gotta Know). It sounds like Lecrae just let the singer improvise till they got something usable or wrote a rap chorus and then got someone to make up a tune.

Here's my plea - Lecrae you need to work with a real songwriter!

Second I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole ‘rehab’ vibe. NOT cos I have a problem with Christian artists going mainstream, NOT because I'm against Christian rappers reaching out evangelistically to the unchurched. But the artwork (Lecrae blowing smoke like he has a joint just out of shot), songs like Check In and Killa and the whole Rehab concept itself, seems engineered to pull some kind of bait and switch scam on non-christians. eg “Hey kids I'm a gangster doing drugs, screwing my life up. Check me out!” but then when they buy the record it’s "hey praise the Lord, you've been suckered into buying a gospel rap CD"

I won’t mention the continuing Reach Records tradition of awful artwork. I’ll just say ‘light grey liner notes on grey/black background’ and leave it at that.

Overall, a lot of great songs on here and well worth checking out, but I am hoping that Lecrae can kick the habit of putting lame hooks into his music.

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Why Sho Serious? Sho Baraka: Lions And Liars Review

  For a chance to win this album click here!

In 2009 Reach Records artist Tedashii released one of the best albums of any genre, Identity Crisis. 2010 looks like being the year of stablemate Sho Baraka and his amazing album Lions And Liars.

What’s so special?

Like all the Reach rappers, Sho is very worded and hard hitting, but he’s humorous with it. He has a gift for handling even the most serious themes in a playful way.

The album is packed with references, both cultural & biblical & is bursting with musical styles & lyrical themes.

Manhood & racial identity, sex, drugs and violence, thug culture & the gospel vie for attention over a crazy mix of stadium rock, & europop anthems, Motown Soul & Black Gospel, sax solos & performance poetry.

Don't trust the trailer

Ever seen a film where the best 3 minutes were all in the trailer? Well this album is the opposite. Don’t judge Oh Well & Revolutionary Died from the taster videos you‘ve seen on Youtube. Like his master, Sho saved the best for last. Both songs will have you hitting replay again and again.

The man raps with a twinkle in his eye. It’s apparent on Lions Anthem from the nod to Whole Lotta Love to rapping about the shoe salesman who’s used to save soles (souls) and his cousin at the IRS dealing with false profits (prophets). 

But he’s just warming up. He catches fire on Mercy On Me. Over a powerfully penitent gospel chorus, the criminal & the cancer patient who’ll “be dead by year's end” are our companions at the mercy seat. 

I’m Black - a creatively recorded performance poem by Tom Ason, serves as an attention grabbing intro to My Life

Nice aim! They taught us to aim for nothing

And look, we hit it, dead on the button.

Sho’s personal journey through self-identity issues features superbly crafted lyrics - each line of the chorus recaps the line before, and the final line leads us back to the first line. 

On Me, Myself & I he gets all Smeagol/Gollum on the mic, as he documents his battles against the flesh.

You’re a liar, a jerk you’re a creep,

So prideful, arrogant and weak.

Don't waste your skit

Liar’s Anthem is built on a sample from a Don’t Waste Your Life video skit. Singing from the thug’s p.o.v. could be dangerous move, turning this into a gangster's song, but Sho manages to makes the transition via looking at the sins of the rap industry, church & Nike(!) to straight out preaching. 

Propaganda supplies the second performance poem BOYS!!! and it is a killer. In 1:29 he manages to reduce wannabe gangsters to “silly boys.” And sets the stage perfectly for the album’s high point Revolutionary Died

It’s still hip-hop minus all the thugging

Take the poet & the priest & put it in the husband

I know one song can’t change the world

But maybe the dude next door [will] stop beating his girl

download it right now!

This song is a classic and the only reason not to get immediately is that’s ‘cos you’re gonna get the whole album.

Oh Well keeps up the pressure over a swaggering rock groove

They save whales, save dogs, save dolphins,

Save trees – but kids ain’t really that important

All the money he wants can’t buy joy

Dollar bills don’t make men out of boys

By this stage Sho is relentless. When the beat drops he keeps going - right of the edge of the map.

Perfect?

No, there’s a few weak points - all of them minor. 

The early tracks struggle to sustain the weight of the grand concept. Who is the dead lion? Jesus? Christians? Does the cover mean Sho is a Liar? Or a Lion and a Liar? As well as making him look freakishly ugly it’s trying to make a metaphor mean too many things all at once. AND IT DOESN’T MATTER! The songs and the track listing are strong enough to tell their own story. 

Just for once I’d love to see a hip hop album presented simply as “a collection of the best tracks I recorded this year” without feeling the need to make some kind of over hyped statement. Because the songs make a powerful enough statement all by themselves. Though strictly speaking this is not a concept album I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard an album with such a powerful flow (particularly from I’m Black to Oh Well).

The ugly photo isn’t the only sleeve issue. This is the second Reach Records release I’ve had to go online to find out the name of a track or featured rapper.  
Readab1E fOnts  guys!

The album is 17 tracks plus 4 bonus tracks. Filling every second of the CD runs the risk diluting the album. There’s nothing wrong with the bonus tracks – (Kobe Bryant On Em extended mix? Yes, please!) but why not keep the album tighter and include a unique download code for bonus tracks?

So to sum up, the only things wrong with this CD are Sho paid more attention to the music than the artwork and is too generous with his tracks. Shame on you Sho!

This is an incredible, inspiring five star album. It will make you laugh and make you think. It will move your heart and probably the rest of your body with it .

Wanna get your hands on a free copy of this CD? Tune in tomorrow to find out how.

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Mutemath Armistice Review Pt.2

( Read the first part of the review here)

Another trait shared with U2 is MuteMath’s ability to have a full and compelling sound even though no one instrument seems to be playing all that much. The ‘catchy as a cold’ first single, Spotlight showcases how they really do operate as a band rather than simply overdubbing a bunch of instruments on top of each other. Speaking of overdubs, what would a normal band use to build into the first big chorus – power chords? String pads? On Goodbye and Odds MM use violin and marimba/glockenspiels!

Meany’s world-weary lyrics about “our sad terminal democracy” on the latter seem to refer to how the band scrapped all the songs they’d already written on the road for this album and started again from scratch.

“I know it’s hard to say
We’ll throw it all away
But the odds are we’ll be better off”

Standout ballad Lost Year could almost be a Swell Season piano track but for the odd chord clusters in chorus. No instrument ever seems to be played conventionally or predictably for very long. Darren King’s drumming, often chopped up, distorted and compressed, is transformed on Pins & Needles into a gentle Jazz-like support for more string quartet oddness.

Closing track Burden opens like a driving INXS song but in the final few minutes becomes a plaintive and almost ambient meditation on the futility and fragility of the fallen condition. Built musically on the bridge of Spotlight, it’s a masterful Ecclesiastes like summation of the album’s theme.

“The devil is not the nature that is around us,
But the nature that is within us all”

This album is a grower, full of surprise and depth on every level.
You can buy Armistice here.

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MuteMath Armistice Review Pt. 1

(Photo: Max Roper)


What U2 are to the modern worship movement Mutemath could be to postmodern indie rock worship. Channelling it, perfectly expressing it, transcending it, and ultimately defining it. The band that every other band sounds a little bit like. The most influential band in the genre without actually being in the genre. Maybe.

I'm not saying they particularly SOUND like U2. Mutemath don’t really sound like any one of their closest ‘competitors’. For one thing there’s a organic feel that earths even their most programmed moments, giving them a humanity that David Crower Band’s relentless barrage of bleeps (AKA ‘Church Music’) never gets close to.

For another the funky atmosphere of the band's native New Orleans is a missing ingredient in most bands but simmers away in the background here like a spicy pan of gumbo. The spirits of George Porter Jr. & Zigaboo Modeliste hover around title track Armistice like funky guardian angels.
(In fact the only disappointment with the album is that the barebones remix of Armistice showcasing the Rebirth Brass Band isn’t here - but you can listen to it here or on Under The Radar's podcast).

(Photo: Max Roper)

Album opener Nerve has singer Paul Meany’s most Bono-like lyrics

“This world’s like a wounded martyr worried if his commitment is gone”

but where U2 want to save the world MM just want to “set it on fire.”

Backfire kicks off with a beguiling constantly detuning guitar. Guitarist Greg Hill may be from the Edge school of minimalism but he paints his own pictures with his own colours.



Presumably taking it’s name from the uber-distorted bass intro Clipping is overlaid with skittering drums and classical piano arpeggios. In place of a guitar solo we get a string quartet swooping and screeching and capturing the song’s desperation and confusion perfectly.

(Part Two here)

buy Armistice here.

Thanks to Vitamin Z TV, AM Music Blog, and Max Roper (photos).



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