Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon
My complaints about this album are pretty much in line with previous reviews (too long, too much repetition, etc.), with a few caveats.
First of all, there ARE some strong tracks here. The drum n' bass / chiptune tinged 'Atari', for example, is a lot of fun and probably the one song where all their "cliche" neo-soul hallmarks really come together into something compelling from start to finish that also stands out from the crowd.
That being said, I'm more of a 70's jazz-fusion head than some people 'round MB, so I can appreciate (or perhaps tolerate) some of their lengthier strides more than someone else might Because when they don't go too overboard and stick to some consistent melodic elements, like on the synthy 'By Fire', you hear the massive potential they have. There's lot of individual sequences that work really well, but not always as full length songs.
As R&B acts like King demonstrated with their self-titled back in 2016, you can have a consistent aesthetic without a crazy amount of variation and pull of a beautiful album experience. But those girls have fantastic vocal melodies to make up for the occasional weakness...whereas these guys haven't quite figured it out here.
Trim down the overall album length a bit, vary the songwriting more (get a few other writers in maybe?) and you'd have a modern day classic on your hands. Or at least something pretty close.
6 out of 10
Last edited by Anteater; 07-13-2017 at 03:07 PM.
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