Review Summary: I wish that I knew what I know now...when I was younger
Whether you’re a fan of Young Fathers or not, this album sounds different than normal. To those of you just tuning in, this album is an atmospheric, lyrically sparse but heavily produced and textured piece of mildly experimental music. But even to those who’ve given a listen to their previous works, this album represents a fairly substantial turn from what has been established by the Scottish trio. While the often chaotic and dense instrumental accompaniment is still recognizable, gone are the bombastic, in your face lyricism which the previous albums drew from. Instead, dense electronic instrumentation along with a range of more classical devices of varying flavors take the drivers seat. Which isn't really too surprising to those who have followed their progression. They have drifted further and further from vocals and lyrics and have become increasingly instrumental. This album represents a comprehensive and uncompromising step in that direction.
Say what you want about them, but the group certainly has a knack for making hard hitting, attention grabbing compositions. Spanning all the way back to tracks like “Rumbling” from the first mixtape to “Queen is Dead” on Tape Two, they certainly have always had gritty but catchy hooks and instrumentation in their repertoire. Seeing as how these sounds are now on the front line, noticeable effort has gone into making them striking as ever. From the first electric organ(?) keys of “Still Running”, the yelling and tambourine shakes on “Feasting”, the eerie violins on “Sirens”, the drums and gospel-ish choir on “Liberated”, the beats on this make me feel like a rogue adventurer in the heart of an unexplored jungle. From tense, uneasy moments like “Sirens” or full on flight from hostile natives on tracks like “Feasting”, there’s a distinct and wild atmosphere hanging over most of the album. From the crashing and discordant instrumentation to more rumbling tracks, they are all varied and interesting and appropriate in their own ways; which is usually enough to keep even mediocre songs pretty entertaining. That being said, the album loses steam towards the back en. While this is intentional, call me the Hurt Locker because I’m missing the war. In particular the last 3 tracks are a bit tiresome. While the more upbeat “27” I didn't mind so much earlier in the tracklist, the whistling and rambling of “John Doe” isn't bad per se but too dreary for me. And the last two tracks are decent on their own merits but left me feeling a little bit like a hangover after the wild bender that was the first two-thirds.
For all the instrumental gallivanting, you’d be hard pressed to call this a hip-hop album, even an experimental one. And honestly, I miss the punchy rapping of old Young Fathers. I appreciate the effort they’ve made in diversifying their sound and there are definitely some good moments but I feel something was lost which wasn’t completely replaced on this new album. Revisiting Tape One and Tape Two in particular (I didn't care for the last LP as much), I enjoyed having the beautiful, disorderly beats behind the rapping or at least spoken word. While they've never been consumed by the rap or spoken word elements on any album, the relative scarcity on this album makes it feel too ethereal. In the same vein, there aren't any instantly memorable or standout tracks I found that I’d really come back to over and over. It’s solid, both track by track and as a whole but but never really wowed me. I think they’ve struck upon some really strong production, atmosphere building and compositional elements here and if they were to punctuate the higher moments with some more tangible lyricism, it might hit a happy medium for me, which they're clearly not interested in.
