Board 8 > ~ Perfect Places: Giggs' 50 favourite albums of 2017 ~

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know you're not big on Jay-Z, but hoping to still see 4:44 (aka No ID's magnum opus) on the list
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4:44 is Jay's best record in a long ass time, but as far as No ID goes the production on Summertime '06 is way better
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taaaag

I don't know how you manage to consume so much, I've heard maybe three of these so far. I did see Everything Everything last year and they were a highlight, Run the Numbers crushed it

also 2001 could be entirely instrumental and I'd still call it one of the best rap albums of all time, it was the perfection of a style! Dre made an arsenal of tracks so hot if the chronic was blazing a trail this was like scorching the earth, imitators had to move on

Giggsalot posted...

4:44 is Jay's best record in a long ass time, but as far as No ID goes the production on Summertime '06 is way better

Profoundly disagree with the latter statement
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if you think lyrics in hip hop are important you're obviously never going to put 2001 on a "best hip hop albums ever" list.

that being said, i'm a beats over rapping guy (as stated before) and i never thought dre's beats were THAT great, at least not at this point in his career (he hit his peak with the chronic imo). maybe i should give 2001 another shot, though. with all of the discussion of this album i kinda want to!
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

if you think lyrics in hip hop are important you're obviously never going to put 2001 on a "best hip hop albums ever" list.

that being said, i'm a beats over rapping guy (as stated before) and i never thought dre's beats were THAT great, at least not at this point in his career (he hit his peak with the chronic imo). maybe i should give 2001 another shot, though. with all of the discussion of this album i kinda want to!

Do it. It's the single most immaculate piece of hip-hop production ever made.
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That's a fascinating statement actually, I wonder what my pick for best produced hip-hop album ever would be.

My gut reaction was Aquemini. Not sure if I'd settle on that if I really thought on it, but it's certainly up there.
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yeah, i have no idea what i would pick.

mecca and the soul brother maybe?
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Hi, I'm super late but:

Traditional Latin American pop of the absolute highest order. I don't know anything about this style of music, but I'm a sucker for flamenco guitar and Cuban rhythms, and on Musas Lafourcade lives up to her reputation as the standard bearer for this kind of stuff. Put this on and make paella for your girl and she'll think you're the classiest motherfucker she's ever seen.

1. Robbed. This album is fantastic.
2. I wouldn't call this anywhere near Lafourcade's signature style; she started off as a pure pop girl before transitioning into more of that "quirky indie pop" during the mid-2000s. This is basically a covers album; the songs are traditional Latin American songs from anywhere between Chile and Mexico.
3. Flamenco is a Spanish music style. This guitar is typical of bolero.
4. Paellas are Spanish as well but I'll forgive you. Just make sure that girl isn't latina haha.
5. Do listen to "Hasta La Raiz" if you liked this and haven't already; it's her best album imo.
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Surskit posted...

Hi, I'm super late but:

Traditional Latin American pop of the absolute highest order. I don't know anything about this style of music, but I'm a sucker for flamenco guitar and Cuban rhythms, and on Musas Lafourcade lives up to her reputation as the standard bearer for this kind of stuff. Put this on and make paella for your girl and she'll think you're the classiest motherfucker she's ever seen.

1. Robbed. This album is fantastic.
2. I wouldn't call this anywhere near Lafourcade's signature style; she started off as a pure pop girl before transitioning into more of that "quirky indie pop" during the mid-2000s. This is basically a covers album; the songs are traditional Latin American songs from anywhere between Chile and Mexico.
3. Flamenco is a Spanish music style. This guitar is typical of bolero.
4. Paellas are Spanish as well but I'll forgive you. Just make sure that girl isn't latina haha.
5. Do listen to "Hasta La Raiz" if you liked this and haven't already; it's her best album imo.

oh shit, a person with actual knowledge. good to have you!

I actually did know this was covers, but it didn't feel all that significant from an outsider/layman perspective. naturally that changes if you're familiar with the style, but I didn't expect anyone here to be. I appreciate the genre correction too; I figured flamenco wouldn't apply, but I wasn't sure what else to use.

also, there's no way in hell I'd be making paella for any Spanish speakers! I work with enough actual Spaniards to ever risk my reputation like that.

will try and get 14-11 up tonight!
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14. Ian William Craig - Slow Vessels
Key Track: Arrive, Arrive (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvCm8aCZLA)

Ian William Craig's 2016 album Centres is one of the ambient records of the decade, a deeply melancholic core of singer-songwriter tracks anchored in Craig's flawless falsetto, completely enshrouded and obscured in swirling, ambiguous tape loops. It sounds like a Bon Iver album that sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Its new companion piece, Slow Vessels, strips back the drones and presents the songs in a plainer form - raw, fragile and unveiled as the haunting lamentations they are. On Centers, the powerful emotion of these songs feels abstract and dream-like, but here, nothing is left to the imagination. Neither is better than the other, but both are utterly essential for anyone who values getting lost in sound.

13. Tyler the Creator - Flower Boy
Key Track: Boredom (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxlBOBOZHqI)

HE DID IT. HE ACTUALLY FUCKING DID IT.

Like many people on the internet, I've been convinced against my better judgement for years that Tyler the Creator had a masterpiece somewhere inside him. I'd stopped paying active attention to his work - I didn't even listen to Cherry Bomb - but I was always ready to step back in whenever the fuck he grew up. And six years after the shambolic Goblin roll-out, Flower Boy is what I always wanted. Compared to Tyler's previous high point, Wolf, every single aspect of the music has improved massively; the wordplay, the lyrical topics, the flows, the use of guests, the music. Tyler's always had immense potential as a producer, but here he really nails it as a Kanye-esque curator - he sings all over this record, allows instrumental passages to develop for minutes on end, and there are several songs here where he's barely involved vocally at all. Tyler's rebellious rage has been finally faded into ennui and genuinely relateable internal conflict, and on Flower Boy he channels that into a colorful, affecting and often beautiful song cycle. Welcome to the big leagues, Tyler. We've been waiting for you.
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12. Algiers - The Underside of Power
Key Track: The Underside of Power (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGZXzmM1smM)

It's 2018, and Algiers are the best and most important rock band on the planet. Their seamless and unholy merging of noisy post-punk and gospel arrived stunningly fully-formed on their 2015 debut self-titled record, at times sounding like Trent Reznor remixing negro spiritual music for the Black Lives Matter generation. It was my favourite album of that year, and their follow-up, The Underside of Power, is in many ways even better. This thing is an absolute tour-de-force for Algiers as a band unit; over 45 minutes here they delve into screeching synth punk, apocalyptic post-trap soundscapes, tender piano ballads and everything in between, all without sacrificing a coherent vision or their established aesthetic. Not everything works perfectly here - the second half can't quite keep up with the first - but these guys are truly incredible, and there's no band that the world needs more right now than Algiers.

11. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
Key Track: uhhhhh (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10q1ZJyLXFk)

If you know one thing about Mirror Reaper, you know it's an 83-minute single track doom metal album. Frankly, I don't blame you if that's the only thing you need to know. But Mirror Reaper is an album of absolutely stunning composition, pacing and scope, and a heart-wrenching monument to loss. Framed as a sonic epitaph to former Bell Witch drummer Adrien Guerra (whose vocals are included here, credited to the "voice of the dead"), it's essentially a funereal doom symphony of two parts, with significant portions of the record given over to bleak, impossibly fragile sounds reminiscient of early Low. It goes without saying: you'll probably never listen to Mirror Reaper with complete unblinking focus. Your mind will wander. And yes, the album could probably have made its point in half the time. But that's kind of missing the point; grief is an indulgent, overwhelming feeling, and Mirror Reaper is a staggeringly potent embodiment of that emotion.
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So we've reached the top ten! I'd love to see some predictions, if anyone has any.
To give a hint, here's an approximate genre breakdown of the top ten:

Hip-Hop: 2
Folk: 3
(Art) Pop: 2
Metal: 1
Electronic: 2

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The list so far is as follows:

11. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
12. Algiers - The Underside of Power
13. Tyler the Creator - Flower Boy
14. Ian William Craig - Slow Vessels
15. Oxbow - Thin Black Duke
16. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
17. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream
18. The National - Sleep Well Beast
19. Converge - The Dusk in Us
20. Blanck Mass - World Eater
21. Cunninlynguists - Rose Azura Njano
22. Slowdive - Slowdive
23. Clap! Clap! - A Thousand Skies
24. Slow - V: Oceans
25. Angles 9 - Disappeared Behind the Sun
26. Brockhampton - Saturation I - III
27. Flotation Toy Warning - The Machine that Made Us
28. Freddie Gibbs - You Only Live Twice
29. Benjamin Clementine - I Tell a Fly
30. Jonwayne - Rap Album Two
31. Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls
32. Sun Kil Moon - Common as Light and Love are Red Valleys of Blood
33. Circuit des Yeux - Reaching for Indigo
34. Torres - Three Futures
35. Forest Swords - Compassion
36. IDK - IWASVERYBAD
37. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers
38. Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
39. Migos - CULTURE
40. Laura Marling - Semper Femina
41. Bicep - Bicep
42. King Krule - The Ooz
43. Moses Sumney - Aromanticism
44. Jlin - Black Origami
45. SZA - CTRL
46. Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology
47. Heaven in Her Arms - White Halo
48. Stormzy - Gang Signs and Prayer
49. Natalia Lafourcade - Musas
50. N.E.R.D. - No One Ever Really Dies
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Assuming DAMN, 4:44, Crack-Up, Lorde's album are on there. Probably some obscure Viking funeral folk doom album too. Didn't Fever Ray release something? That as well!
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Mirror Reaper was awesome, thanks for showing me that.
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Lcd soundsystem
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id like to see All Amerikkkan Bada$$ and 4eva Is A Mighty Long Time, but not holding my breath
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so far you've collectively got three of them!
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i've got nothing as far as guesses go.

one i'd have felt pretty confident about was tyler, the creator but that one's already out so...
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Only one not mentioned that I think could, and should, have a shot from my personal list is Paramore's After Laughter. Absolutely love that album.
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will get the next batch done tonight, including one of the albums guessed so far! additional predictions for that, or indeed the list in general, are welcome until then.
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Guessing Kendrick, St. Vincent, Lorde and... Offa Rex.

I think I'm gonna have to check out Flower Boy after reading your thoughts. I've slept on Tyler for many of the same reasons, to the point that I didn't even bother looking at the features on his newest album. Though to be honest all you had to say is that he's matured, and I would have been sold.
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Awesome, you should! I'm actually surprised you didn't hear about its quality earlier; it's by far his best reviewed project (I think it made the p4k year-end top ten, and it's currently RYM's top rated non-live/soundtrack album of 2017) and it inspired a ton of thinkpieces, mostly because Tyler almost certainly subtly comes out as queer over the course of the album.

But yeah - it's not without silliness, but it's definitely the first actual mature Tyler album. And if he can keep up this quality, he'll be one of the most important people in the genre for a long time.
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Also completely ignored that release until this topic. Listened to it 3 times since yesterday. It's really good.
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glad to be helping you guys find some cool stuff! I imagine everyone's already heard this one though.

10. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
Key Track: DNA (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRYQMLDW4)

Absolutely no introduction needed here, so I'll jump straight to the hot take: I like DAMN more than To Pimp a Butterfly. I'm not going to say it's better, and I completely understand why people would be disappointed with this. It's a mortal record, after all. Even Butterfly's moments of humility felt choreographed to convey a specific message, but DAMN has no real cohesion and pop overtures and trendy beat choices and U2 are here for some reason. It's a mess. But it's significantly more intriguing for that. DAMN features Kendrick's weirdest and most pop-friendly material ever slotted side by side, deliberately contradicting each other in sound, theme and moral. GKMC and Butterfly both condescended their audience at times by overtly explaining their subtextual themes, but DAMN has weird repeated concepts that never get resolved, a completely non-linear structure, and a bizarre "black Israelite" subplot that must be among the most apocalyptic and frightening ideologies ever featured on a hit record. The fact that DAMN presents all these things without significant explanation or context is the record's strength. Like most of us, Kendrick is a man with a lot on his mind, and not all of it will make sense or cohere into a single path. It's an album that strips him of the prophet label and shows us the conflicted, damaged man he is. And that gives me a lot to go back to; I love the general sound of this thing, from the melancholic interstitial soul pieces to the psychedelia of deep cuts like LUST and FEAR, and lyrically there's always something new to uncover. DAMN is an album with immense replay value, and while I doubt Kendrick is entirely done with high concept work, if this messy, confused artist is the rapper we're dealing with from here on, I'd be more than okay with that.
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To Pimp a Butterfly is still my favorite, but DAMN is second. Phenomenal album.
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9. James Holden and the Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
Key Track: The Animal Spirits (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQsHZ0eyPl8)

Let's start this one simply. Here is a list of user-voted genres for this album on rateyourmusic: Progressive Electronic, Krautrock, Spiritual Jazz, Post-Rock, Neo-Psychedelia. If you are anything like me, you are probably now salivating, wondering how this is even possible, and rushing to listen to this immediately. If not, let me try again.

One-time DJ wunderkind James Holden re-emerged a few years ago with The Inheritors, a hugely acclaimed album that positioned him alongside Nicolas Jaar as a premiere soundscaper in modern electronic music. That not being enough, for his next trick Holden assembled a band, and decided to make a self-described "folk-trance" album that feels equally indebted to Tangerine Dream, Pharoah Sanders and Fela Kuti. And The Animal Spirits is exactly as amazing as that sounds. This thing is loaded with a mystical tribal atmosphere, rampaging saxophones, synths that can't decide whether to be guitars or monster trucks and everything in between. Sonically and texturally this thing is just straight up incredible, and I really hope he sticks with this sound because it's probably the biggest blast of "you've never heard anything like this before" that I got all year. Just a ridiculously cool album in every respect.
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8. Richard Dawson - Peasant
Key Track: Weaver (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G54_PYN1Sp4)

It's pretty easy to make weird folk music. All you really need to do is strap on a guitar, howl tunelessly and overdub some field recordings and someone out there will proclaim you a genius. Making good weird folk music, however, is hard, but Richard Dawson hurdles so many obstacles on Peasant that it's easy to forget that they're even there. This is an album where a medieval sound and theme is employed without ever descending into Renaissance Faire fuckery; where the idiosyncratic singing is underpinned by genuinely great melodies, allowing it to be endearing rather than stupid; where he somehow manages to use the word "eiderdown" in a song without looking absurd. This is an album of the weird folk tradition alright - it's indebted to Comus and the Incredible String Band as much as it is anything conventional, there are haunted choirs floating around everywhere here, and Dawson plays the guitar like he's paid commission every time he snaps a string. But the fundamentals of songwriting and arrangement here are so good that everything coalesces into something truly brilliant. Peasant has received a fairly stunning amount of attention for the kind of record it is (The Quietus, a.k.a. the best music publication around, gave this album of the year, and it's seen loads of other nods too) and that feels like a real vindication of songwriting talent. This could hardly be less cool as an album, but when music is this good, who the hell cares?
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damn is my least favorite kendrick album. i understand your reasoning, but the lack of cohesion and odd themes and messages, while being the point, made for a worse album in my opinion. that and many songs not having as much replay value as his past albums. i think the only songs i still keep in rotation are element and xxx. not a bad album by any means, just not his best work for me
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I can't really argue with that! I didn't really go into my various personal issues with TPAB, but there are definitely other reasons why I personally consider DAMN to be a step up. In any case, while I admire his experimentation since, good kid is still my favourite Kendrick project by quite some way.
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i considered guessing kendrick but i wasn't sure how DAMN was received - didn't seem like people were freaking out over it like they were over TPAB. but according to wikipedia DAMN did get rave reviews i could've seen it coming i guess.
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

i considered guessing kendrick but i wasn't sure how DAMN was received - didn't seem like people were freaking out over it like they were over TPAB. but according to wikipedia DAMN did get rave reviews i could've seen it coming i guess.

I think the only reason there wasn't as much fanfare is that after the third in a row we're all beginning to expect greatness from him.

Either that or the fact that it didn't get a 10 from Fantano.
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MELOOONNNN!

7. Susanne Sundfr - Music for People in Trouble
Key Track: Undercover (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-DbVLd1faU)

Judging purely by melodic beauty, this is hands down album of the year. Sundfr has gathered a bit of a Bjrk-esque reputation in recent years, but that particular ice goddess hasn't put out a record of songs this straightforwardly beautiful since Vespertine, if ever. Music for People in Trouble isn't an album that blows you away on first listen, but its plaintiveness and unpretentiousness turn out to be its greatest strengths. Sundfr's sound on this record strikes the perfect balance between sparse and lush, the production is pristine and her voice is stunning. This is not an album that lends itself to hifalutin descriptions, but I really can't praise it enough - Music for People in Trouble is a collection of utterly gorgeous songs that gets better every single time I listen to it, and I wouldn't be surprised if I revisited this list in years to come and it landed even higher. If you like singer-songwriter or artsy pop music even slightly, please please don't miss out on this.
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6. The Ruins of Beverast - Exuvia
Key Track: Exuvia (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIczjF5MvM4)

Man, what an absolute beast of a record this is. Exuvia starts as strong as any record I can think of - the opening movement of its towering fifteen minute title track lures you into its web unassumingly at first, but soon builds into an absolute tornado of psychedelic shamanic trance metal that destroys everything in sight, with the listener in the eye of the storm. And then it all collapses and begins anew. The remaining hour of Exuvia delivers endlessly on the explosive promise of its opening too; this whole album feels like the result of taking ayahuasca and wandering into a tribal wardance ritual. No matter which direction the music takes (and it takes some weird ones - there are bagpipes here), the nightmarish, psychedelic atmosphere never lets up even for a second. The Ruins of Beverast's Alex von Meilenwald has been behind some of the most inspired, ambitious metal albums of the century, but this is certainly his most perfectly realised; the fact it's the work of a single man almost beggars belief. You'll never hear anything like this ever again - put this on and sink into the dream.
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afternoon bump!

(seriously guys, give those albums a listen)
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more tonight!
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well I was right about Kendrick and the obscure deep genre metal!

You're really sleeping on Crack-Up if it's not on here. It's my AotY pretty easily (though my exposure to music has been limited).
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man i still need to listen to crack-up. i don't expect giggs to be into the fleet foxes though.
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yeah, I find Fleet Foxes' cutesy pop stuff pleasant, but their more ambitious stuff does nothing for me either texturally or compositionally. I haven't heard Crack-Up, but I did listen to that big nine-minute single they put out and that didn't move me at all. so they won't be showing up here. sorry!

As a side note, everyone should check out Love's Crushing Diamond by Mutual Benefit! It gives me everything that I assume everybody else gets from Fleet Foxes.
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I honestly wasn't expecting to have listened to anything in your top 10 but I do remember checking out Music for People in Trouble the week it was released. Every once in a while I'll check out an album solely based on it's title or album art, and it happened to be both that piqued my interest for that album. Cool to see it on the list.
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5. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell Live
Key Track: Blue Bucket of Gold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FX34TjJe-c&t=3955s)

This is an odd one, but bear with me here. Carrie and Lowell, Sufjan's 2016 ode to his parents, was a melancholic, stripped down return to his folk roots, but his subsequent tour gave rise to rumours that he was completely transforming the album on stage - giving it a massive sound, in complete contrast to the hushed, reverent studio recording. This gave me mixed feelings. On the one hand, while I liked Carrie and Lowell quite a lot, it definitely skirted with sonic monotony. But on the other, Sufjan's recent efforts in huge soundscaping like The Age of Adz had yielded mixed results at best. But in any case, I was intrigued. So when it was announced that they were releasing a live album cut from the tour, I jumped right on it.

This is the best thing Sufjan's ever done. Without question. The songs retain all of their intimacy and emotional power, but the expansive arrangements here imbue them with a warmth of tone and a diversity of sound that the album totally lacked. Some of the songs are transformed into huge post-rock swells; some feature skittering electronics; some are even almost left alone (these, tellingly, are the weakest). But all of them feel part of something so much grander here. The original album was a tribute and memorial to Sufjan's complicated childhood, but this is a celebration - of the good, the bad, the joyful and the traumatizing - all of it held up as a remarkable, god-given experience. And it's stunningly beautiful. I can't stress enough how warm and welcoming this album is; every tone rings so clearly, the ambience is completely enveloping and the arrangements feel both sparse and huge, a fitting tribute to the bittersweet yet overwhelmingly personal emotional content. I really can't stress enough both how great and how totally unique this is - if you've ever liked anything Sufjan has done, this is absolutely required listening.
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4. Arca - Arca
Key Track: Desafio (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwXOgzmTbVU)

Some people just don't need help in life. Alejandro Ghersi has been one of the most extraordinarily talented electronic producers out there since the dawn of the decade, acting as a major force in defining the new spacey sound of R&B with acts like FKA Twigs and Kelela, as well as releasing mind-bending solo records which sounded like Autechre trying to make pop music inside a black hole. At some point in the last five years, he also co-produced three songs on Yeezus and became Bjrk's BFF and creative partner. Dude's doing alright.

So when it came out that he was following up 2015's utterly spellbinding instrumental album Mutant with what is essentially a pop record centred around his own voice, I would have had reason to be skeptical. But somehow I wasn't, and my faith was justified. Not only does Ghersi's voice complement his own beats more naturally than any collaborator ever has, but his voice might even be straight up better. It's utterly spine-tinglingly beautiful. The first minute of Piel, the opener here, isn't much more than Ghersi vocalising in Spanish, only accompanied by what sounds like a detuned radio. It's nearly two minutes before anything resembling an instrument appears. And it's utterly devastating. Arca's sonic exploration is just as powerful here as ever - from the numerous riveting instrumental tracks to the dramatic pop overtures of Reverie and Desafio - and the introduction of his vocals takes things to a whole other level. This is one of the most unique, powerful albums of the decade - simultaneously a totally engrossing sonic experience that one can't help get lost in, an intellectually fascinating exercise in sound manipulation and a straightforwardly heartbreaking expression of lost love. At this point, I'm not sure there's a single thing Ghersi can't do. If he wants to write my PhD thesis for me, he's more than welcome.
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Giggsalot posted...

5. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell Live
Key Track: Blue Bucket of Gold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FX34TjJe-c&t=3955s)

whoa had no idea this existed
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that's what i'm here for!

(it's so so so so so good seriously)
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I'm not a big Sufjan fan, but Carrie and Lowell was the first album that he felt truly real and authentic to me. It felt really strange to feel a sense of... pride... for him.
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I'm very pleasantly surprised to see Carrie and Lowell on the list! I actually got to go see Sufjan in concert during his Carrie and Lowell tour, and it was freaking spectacular. I'm so glad it was released as an album. Listening to it really fills me with a warm sense of nostalgia. I was so excited that there were some Age of Adz songs in the setlist, too! That's one of my all time favorite albums. My one gripe with Carrie and Lowell Live is that some of the sprawling ambient weirdness I felt worked better in a concert setting with the accompanying visuals, and I don't think all of it translated too well into an album format.

Also, he didn't perform Hotline Bling at the show I went to. I saw on Pitchfork or something the next day that he performed it at the very next concert he did. I was slightly bummed about that. :(
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that's a shame! the hotline bling cover is obviously ridiculous but I can't think of a better way for that album to end.

top three starts tomorrow!
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3. Big K.R.I.T. - 4Eva is a Mighty Long Time
Key Track: Miss Georgia Fornia (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsE3eRSiu6Q)

Comeback of the year, holy shit.

It's been seven years since Big K.R.I.T. pulled a Sakaguchi move and made K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, intended as the final statement of a struggling rapper who never broke through, only for its hunger, lyrical incisiveness and virtuosic production to blow the doors off the rap scene and place him immediately among the most vital artists in the game. K.R.I.T., never a man to waste time, spent the next few years riding the wave by releasing several excellent mixtapes, but soon got stuck for two reasons. Firstly, he became the decade's premiere victim of major label fuckery, but more importantly and less frequently discussed - he completely ran out of ideas. The K.R.I.T. projects of recent years, while competent, sounded like they were spit out by algorithm; here's the candy paint song, here's the recycled soul sample, here's the token introspective track. There was no doubting his talent, but I'd pretty much written the dude off as done.

So, uh, holy shit. K.R.I.T.'s first post-Def Jam release is a ninety minute double album of messianic artistic rebirth, and it's fantastic. He sounds newly inspired creatively in every way here - he's rapping better than ever, his song topics are better than ever, his production is off the fucking charts. This is almost certainly his best work yet, and that fact is actually kind of astounding.

The first of the two discs, named after K.R.I.T.'s stage name, is essentially an improved continuation of what he's always done. The bangers bang, the guests do great, and the production has a verve and bite that his stuff has lacked for a while. But if he put it out alone, I'd probably have missed the magic somewhat. The second disc, however, is where the album really comes together. Titled after K.R.I.T's government name, Justin Scott opens with a four minute slow-building instrumental in the Curtis Mayfield tradition, and the album follows it in being a collection of unprecedented ambition from K.R.I.T. The production veers into country-soul, gospel, free-form jazz, the song lengths increase, and Scott tackles some of his most personal and powerful topics yet. It's essentially the closest he's ever come to Aquemini, and that is pretty much the best comparison a southern rapper can ever receive.

This is just an absolute embarrassment of riches. The two discs are brilliantly conceptualized and executed, and for a twenty-song rap album to be this consistent is almost unprecedented. This is a complete Hail Mary of a record, and everything about it works flawlessly. If you've ever cared about K.R.I.T., about southern hip-hop, or about modern music in general, you need this in your life. This is rap album of the year by miles.

To channel the dude on the hilarious skit... it's a classic!
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no love for K.R.I.T.? for shame!
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Classic K.R.I.T.--everyone still ignoring him
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