https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4az3mKDOrEo

pretty good. the album comes out in april, interesting to see freddie gibbs has a track on it.

I'll check this out, but I'd like to hear Tom and his guitar more.

this track underwhelmed me.

I would rather another yussef kamaal or an alfa mist/yussef album...

tom is dope and all that, but the quality of his body of work is less than it should be with his talent.

Diggin it... much appreciated...

and was also meh on it. Underwhelming, but I'm still looking forward to hearing the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7GaK516Wkk&feature=youtu.be

give the drummer some.

rocco is dope too.

thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7GaK516Wkk

didn't care for that first song.

Lift off goes.

sonic eargasms

One listen in, but I'm definitely a fan of the vibe…

Sidenote, new Terrace Martin project "Conscious Conversations" is dope, too...

dude just be dropping ish.

but every time I hear a snippet of these new tracks, I'm not as moved or motivated to listen. I feel like he can go so much farther than what he puts out. It's kinda feeling redundant, imo.

What do y'all think?
---

https://twitter.com/MeeshUniVerSoul


"She was on that tip about stoppin' the violence
About my people she was teachin' me..."

the only song that grabbed me immediately was "I Did It For You". That's instant replay material for me.

Everything else feels... subdued. I didn't dig the first half of the album really. I wish they could've pushed the envelope a bit more. Yussef usually snaps on the drums but it seems like he held back on most of the tracks aside from the one I stated above and maybe "Last 100". "Sensational", "Kyiv" and "Storm Before The Calm" was also cool as well as the second half of "Julie Mangos".

The first half of "Julie Mangos" def gives me Voodoo Outtake vibes haha.

---

https://twitter.com/MeeshUniVerSoul


"She was on that tip about stoppin' the violence
About my people she was teachin' me..."

I chalk it up to tom misch... dude is a little bland for my tastes.

the other ish yussuf released lately (with alfa mist, his own solo joint) was WAY better imo

but this is OKP.

My honest take is that the instrumentation and arrangements are largely really good and sometimes sublime but the vocals, lyrics, and sometimes the melodies themselves make the whole album almost tragically forgettable. It's actually really disappointing that the music is so good but that the "top" layer - the layer that is used here to give the music recognizable structure and a face - is so uninspired. Most of the vocals sound like Misch woke up, rolled over to face his smartphone, hit record, and started to sing the first melody that came to mind, all without even bothering to wipe the crust out of his eyes. I love a good subtle, almost monotonous or lightly inflected singer - but they have to be good, there has to be thought behind it, and it should meld with and add to the larger context, not be there simply to be there. The vocals add absolutely nothing to the music; they take away everything from it.

The lyrics only exacerbate the problem. From the title track:

"Can I make it clear
There's nothing to see here
The demons come and go
I know that with time they come around
Opened up a door
And I came back for more
It's too late to look back
Forever got this tag on me"

Or from "Tidal Wave":

"Everybody knows inside that this won't stop
The rain coming down tonight, we just watch
I know it's too late, I had so much I wanna say
We'll just have to wait
Everybody knows we're done as the lights go off
Had all the time in the world and now it's lost
The skies blood red is the last time you reach your cause
Skipping away"

I will skip over the fact that reads like something I might have written as a junior in high school while, I don't know, watching it rain from my bedroom window listening to Garbage or something... more important is it just seems so... perfunctory. Like they decided something needed some lyrics so they scribbled a few words down and called it a day...

I would enjoy the album a thousand times more if the vocals were removed. No exaggeration: just take off the vocals and I'd be in a totally different space. They're not needed. Most of the melodies aren't especially engaging; they add nothing to each song. The music is strong enough to stand on its own -- the instrumentals that *are* on the album are infinitely better than the songs with vocals, imo, and are probably the only thing that will keep me coming back to the album at all.

The drums are fire. A lot of the bass is really good, too. Some of the synths come off cheesy but I can live with that - I see the sound vision and appreciate it. But the album is marred by the vocals/lyrics/melodies, imo, and because an album should be more than the sum of its parts, not less, they really weight the total album down.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

Sounds like you’re nitpicking. By your own admission, the music is strong which in turn make this a solid record. That what I was looking for. When folks mentioned that this was going to happen, I tried to say that then that this collab didn’t sound so exciting. I would’ve preferred Dayes and Alfa when they did those few tracks together. Somehow Misch and Dayes make this work and I was surprised that this sounded as good as it did. The track with Gibbs is fire as well.

When this came out I played this that weekend for friends at a small gathering and folks loved it. I see this as a great summer album, or playing it on an evening drive to get out and unwind. Dayes is continuing to show that he is near the top drummers if not the best of the present day.

>Sounds like you’re nitpicking. By your own admission, the
>music is strong which in turn make this a solid record.

It's not about a couple of verses that I don't like. I think I laid it out pretty clearly: great instrumentation and performance but the particular combo of vocals/melodies/lyrics makes it feel like a pretty average record at best.

How a listener weighs the different components of a record will always be unique to that listener *and* to that record. It's not a repeatable mathematical formula. For me, there are a lot of times that mediocre vocals or bad lyrics (far worse than here) don't really impact a record for me because everything else is so engaging. Or because even if it's not my cup of tea, you can hear the care that the artist put into it - it feels thoughtful and intentional and you can register that. Intent, thoughtfulness, care - these are artistic principles that go a long way for me as a listener.

When stuff (vocals/melodies) feel added on just to be there *and* its execution is mediocre (represented through dull lyrics) -- it doesn't show a lot of care. And, again for me, it can weigh down even interesting arrangements and musicianship precisely because there's a contradiction that isn't reconciled: great care and thoughtfulness with half of the work, sloppiness and a sloping toward cliches just to still space on the other. I don't think it's a bad record. I also don't find it very memorable and probably won't play it much more than I have - which to me makes it pretty average.

I'd say it's the opposite of nitpicking, really. It's trying to take in both the whole and its parts - a lot of the parts work here, but the ones that don't really scar the whole for me.

>When this came out I played this that weekend for friends at a
>small gathering and folks loved it. I see this as a great
>summer album, or playing it on an evening drive to get out and
>unwind.

I'm glad you and they enjoyed it! And I agree that Dayes is exceptional - he really comes off as the star of the record and honestly is what has kept me listening to it rather than tossing it right away. And I think this record helps show his versatility in sound - can't wait to hear what he's up to next.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

>will always be unique to that listener *and* to that record.

boingo
---

https://twitter.com/MeeshUniVerSoul


"She was on that tip about stoppin' the violence
About my people she was teachin' me..."

>

misch ruins it for me... and saying that, i really like his vocal performance on other stuff (see alfa mist 'no sleep')

I'm not saying this is completely terrible, but what it is, is relatively average given that it involves a musician as exceptional as Yussef Dayes.

Made me check some of his previous work which I did not know about. I'll be checking for him in the future.

---

https://twitter.com/MeeshUniVerSoul


"She was on that tip about stoppin' the violence
About my people she was teachin' me..."