2 October. Listened to it all in one sitting. Think i'll go for another round but my initial impression is one of joy mixed with cynicism.Over a decade of music making the man has done things to me only accomplished by skilled lovers. The tracks that dont do pleasant things to me tend to at least get me on a cerebral level. On this however there are instances of bad composition, errors that flylo could never be accused of such as:
Dull filler material
Poorly developed ideas
Failing to maintain momentum
Ill conceived structure
And the list goes on. However... it is a great album and those criticisms are the product of an anally retentive pedantic obsessive compulsive. Perhaps I should have prefaced all this with the fact that this is in fact a brilliant album. Im comparing it to a standard attained on cosmogramma that approached and courted perfection.Moments that were of no mortal doing. The album has some songs that will go into the canon of great flylo songs but it also has some highly forgettable tracks. It seems to take place in two parts. The former is standard cosmogramma fair and moved me on a profound level in places. The second part is gentle giant with jazzier inflections. Its a baroque mediaeval anachronism. It requires one to approach it as a jazz album as opposed to a hip hop one. Its in the same vein as mahavishnu and ******* brew era Miles Davis but far more earthbound.
Impromptu review. I'd give it an 8 personally. In relation to the flying lotus canon it represents a man exploring his illustrious lineage from a different perspective and creating something of abstract organic beauty. It has to be taken as a whole. If nothing else hear me on this one. In an era of singles this is a symphonic scale work and listening to individual singles wont really yield much. Take it as a whole and listen in abstraction. If youre expecting electronic/beat music you will probably come away feeling betrayed an heated out of minutes or money. It has to be taken as "a collage of mystical states, dreams, sleep and lullabies" (flying lotus quote). Consider it as a cohesive whole and let it encompass and invade you
Disclaimer:This is not a hip hop album