New Music

After a summer in which nothing good came out for most of June or July, 3 new, high profile albums have come out in August.  First, the Kanye/Jay-Z joint album, Watch the Throne; then came The Game's album, The R.E.D. Album.  Today, I downloaded Tha Carter IV from Lil Wayne.  Since I haven't had class, I've spent the last few weeks listening through them enough to get a good sense.  So I guess I'll cram my review of all three into one post.

The first to come out was Watch the Throne.  I had really high expectations for this album.  Every time Kanye and Jay have collaborated in the past, the result has been pretty explosive.  On Kanye's last album, "So Appalled" was a great track.  "Run This Town" was memorable.  Kanye produced "Heart of the City" from The Blueprint.  So, judging by that bar, the album was a disappointment in the sense that not EVERY track was as great as their previous collaborations.  But, objectively, it was still a pretty good album.  "No Church in the Wild" with Frank Ocean is a really good track-- Kanye's verse in it is unreal.  Jay comes back and does great things in "Murder to Excellence".  And, while the boasting on "Otis" isn't necessarily original, it showcases both Jay and Kanye at their best.  The rest of the tracks aren't necessarily bad, but there's nothing else that's memorable.  And, given that I expected half the album to be memorable, I'm a bit disappointed.  But, still, objectively, this is a B+ album.

Next was The R.E.D. Album.  Now, I'm not a huge Game fan.  His lyrics are pretty simplistic.  His flow is pretty solid, though, and this album is about as good as he gets.  "The City" starts the album off well-- a dark beat with a heavy bass highlights Game's flow.  "Drug Test" is also solid-- I'm not a big fan of the flow; it's quicker than is ideal for Game, and Dre is a bit out of place on the track: his flow is heavy and he doesn't do well with quick beats either, but it's still a pretty good track.  "Martians vs. Goblins" with Lil Wayne is pretty good.  The beat is more in line with what both Wayne and Game excel in.  I think the best part, though, might be a new artist named Tyler, the Creator, who comes in and lays down an absurd verse that reminds me of what Bizarre used to do for D-12: hate on everyone and drop occasionally amusing punch lines.  But my favorite track on the album is "Red Nation", which samples the old stadium track "Zombie Nation" for its beat.  The beat is ideal for Game's flow, covering up the silly lyrics.  And the Wayne hook is great.  I wish Game and Wayne would put out an album together-- they tend to do real well when they collaborate.  The two collabs on this album are great, and they're just as good together in "My Life" from Game's last album, LAX.  Overall, I think I give this one a B: solid, but a lot of filler at the back.  But then I can't imagine giving a Game album better than a B, so I guess I like it.

Tha Carter IV is an especially weird album.  It's the first solo album Lil Wayne's released since he spent the better part of a year in jail on weapons charges.  Before he got locked up, he was putting out a top-notch mixtape every 3-4 months (No Ceilings and Dedication 3 were my personal favorites); plus, one of the better hip-hop albums of all time in Tha Carter III.  Literally half of the 16 tracks were top-notch.  So I didn't really know what to expect from this one: since getting out of jail, Wayne's mostly done collaboration on others' albums, and he's done pretty well; his appearance on Eminem's last album in "No Love" was great.  When I started this album, I thought this would be a historically great album.  The very first track, "Blunt Blowin", is, for my money, one of Wayne's best ever.  The beat is incredible, Wayne is lyrically on top of his game, and he's really on his game.  But, as I listened more, I felt like this was an album recorded in one sitting in which Wayne smoked a blunt, and waited as his high kicked in.  The crisp delivery disappeared a few songs in, and by the time I got to "How to Love" it felt like Wayne was blazed out of his mind, and also half asleep.  He recovered a bit and put together a couple of solid tracks in "President Carter" and "It's Good", but I still don't think it's anywhere near his best effort.  While getting high probably helps him write his lyrics, I kind of wish he'd put down the weed and the codeine syrup when he goes to record, since he sounds like he's half-asleep on most of his tracks on this album.  While this is still a solid album, all things told, it definitely doesn't live up to the early promise.  For me, this is a B/B- album.