Category: Wu-Tang Clan

Album Review: Ghostface Killah’s 36 Seasons

Screen Shot 2014-12-07 at 16.12.57While everyone else was talking about the Wu-Tang Clan reunion album, the most talented member of the group modestly announced that his latest solo record would be dropping exactly one week after A Better Tomorrow.

36 Seasons is Ghostface Killah’s eleventh album, and its another decent addition to an almost impeccable back catalog (the less said about Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City the better).

Most GFK albums have some sort of loose story arc, but this one is billed as being a full-on concept album. In reality, the concept is pretty close to the same one on every other joint since his classic debut, Ironman, but this is no bad thing.

Similar to the 2013 Adrian Younge-assisted Twelve Reasons to Die, the music is something of a departure for Ghost, with different beats to what we are perhaps used to. Production is handled primarily by The Revelations, with some tracks nothing more than soulful interludes from the street drama happening in the narrative. Nice idea but hardly new, and after a while most of the beats start to sound the same. Intriguingly, Blood on the Streets is co-produced by The 45 King, marking a welcome return for one of the most iconic names in the game.

Surprisingly, and breaking tradition from other Wu solo albums, 36 Seasons doesn’t feature a single member of the Clan. Instead, AZ appears on five tracks, and veteran Kool G Rap features on three. The story behind how the album came about is unclear, but both are odd choices for this many features.

He may be one of the best to ever bless the mic, but G Rap’s heyday was a long time ago, and he’s lost the energy and flair of his many classics. AZ meanwhile has always been an underachiever at best, never quite living up to the promise of Illmatic. Both put in credible performances here, but we’ll take a Ghost and Rae collabo over AZ or G Rap all day long.

The poetry album aside, Ghostface has yet to make a bad album, but hasn’t made a truly great one since Apollo Kids. 36 Seasons won’t go down as one of his best, but an average GFK album is still miles ahead of most other artists, and its definitely a lot better than the long-awaited but lackluster new Wu joint.

36 Seasons is out everywhere, December 9.

Album Review: Wu-Tang Clan’s A Better Tomorrow

A Better Tomorrow CoverHype is one thing, but deep down we all knew that the long-awaited Wu-Tang Clan album was never going to be classic. Now that A Better Tomorrow is finally here, its even more of a disappointment than we feared.

It’s not terrible, and still better than 8 Diagrams, but hardly vintage Wu. We didn’t expect them to make the same kind of album they did 20 years ago; hip-hop has moved on since then, and with the average age of a clansman now around 45, so have they. We did expect it to be a better tomorrow than this though, especially having had to wait so long, and after so much in-fighting to get it done.

The biggest problem is a lack of enthusiasm, with none of the group member’s hearts seemingly in it. Even verses from the four best rappers in the group – Ghostface Killer, Raekwon, GZA and Inspectah Deck – sound phoned in, with lyrics that do nothing more than go through the motions.

It would be naive to think that all of the members were in the same room at the same time when they recorded, but its this lack of coherence, both emotionally and geographically, that stops A Better Tomorrow from sounding like a genuine group album. The only rapper that still sounds fresh and energized is Method Man, but its hard for one man to keep the excitement levels up when everyone else around him is flat.

Ironically, considering how passionate he seemed to be about making the album happen, the best beats are those not produced by RZA, with standouts including 40th Street Black/We Will Fight and Keep Watch (both produced by Mathematics), and the Adrian Younge produced Crushed Egos. RZA does put in some good beat work, especially on Hold the Heater, but there’s a sense of laziness and self-indulgence in sampling/riffing on Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man on Preacher’s Daughter.

Not the return to glory we’d hoped for then, but not quite a complete trainwreck. There’s some life left in the Wu, and the likes of Ghostface will no doubt keep on making good music forever, but its difficult to predict just how much further these legends of the game can make it as a team.

A Better Tomorrow is out December 2 on Warner Bros.