Tuesday 1 February 2011

Album of the month

Since it's the first time I'm writing this I'll give a little intro of what to expect. Every month I will be writing about the best new album released within a month (in my opinion obviously), outlining the best tracks and giving it a score out of five.

Album of the month in January is Talib Kweli - 'Gutter Rainbows'.

Although Talib released an album with Hi-Tek ('Revolutions Per Minute') in 2010, it has been three and a half years since his last solo album ('Eardrum') and I was quite exited to hear what he has to say. It's his first only digitally released album and you can hear him talk about the changing music industry. Since it was released just a week ago, it's early to say how well it has done in the charts, but his last solo album ('Eardrum' in 2007) sold 60,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number 2 on U.S. Billboard 200. 'Revolutions Per Minute' (in 2010) debuted at number 18 and sold 21,000 copies in its first week. Although 'Gutter Rainbows' was highly anticipated I doubt it will top his previous solo album only because the music industry is in a decline, but hopefully it will top 'Revolutions Per Minute'.

Best tracks are:
  1. Track 4: 'Palookas' produced by Marco Polo, is a nice dark track to bump your head to; track's hook is 'You ain't got a verse better than my worse one'.
  2. Track 6: 'I'm On One', which samples Beastie Boys 'The New Style' and is produced by Khrysis is a definite banger that shows Talib is not to be messed with.
  3. Track 7: 'Wait For You' feat. Kendra Ross, produced by S1, has a lot of different instruments and in some ways it reminds me of Outcast's style.
  4. Track 10: 'Friends and Family' produced by E. Jones is a nice soulful track where Talib sums up his life in the music business using clever puns that include people he has been involved with through out his career.
  5. Track 13: 'Uh Oh' feat. Jean Grae is produced by Madlib's younger brother Oh No.
All that talk about hip hop is dead couldn't be further from truth with cats like Talib Kweli bringing us realness with his latest album 'Gutter Rainbows'. His lyrical content is straight up fire and the beats are real bangers. Even though 'GR' didn't have giants like Kanye West, Pete Rock, Will.I.Am, KRS-One, DJ Khalil, UGK, Norah Jones, Madlib and others involved in the making of the album like his previous 'Eardrum' did, I still think 'GR' is better because it has less known people like Madlib's younger brother Oh No, Marco Polo, Khrysis, Kendra Ross and many others who worked very hard to bring out this brilliant album.

Here is a an absolute banger from the album, 'I'm On One' (when you press play then change 240p to at least 480p, down right next to YouTube logo, cause quality is everything!!):


My rating for the album is: 4/5

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