Nujabes Spiritual State |
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 | Tracklist:
1. Spiritual state
2. Sky is Tumbling
3. Gone Are The Day
4. Spirale
5. City Light
6. Color of Autumn
7. Down on the Side
8. Yes
9. Rainy Way Back Home
10. Far fowls
11. Fellows
12. Waiting for the clouds
13. Prayer
14. Island
| Ranking: #34 for 2011 | |
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On 55 Lists
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| Summary: His weakest album, and still it's pure bliss. |
It didn't take long after Jun Seba's sudden death early last year for the remaining affiliates of Hydeout Productions to announce that there was more Nujabes material in the vaults ready to be released. Great news, we all thought; but then we were made to wait almost two years for it....
The problem with the waiting is that it made you wonder why you were waiting, and soon as you did, all sorts of concerns came to mind. What if this was incomplete material? What if it simply wasn't very good? What if they were waiting for a host of guest rappers to turn up and rap over the tracks left behind? What if it was going to end up - gulp - a collaboration album packed with other people 'paying tribute' to Nujabes by pissing all over his legacy? Unfounded concerns, sure, but hip-hop lovers have been around long enough to know that the genre's moneymakers are very good, and very shameless, at milking the legacies of those who died young. Remember some classless fucknut releasing a 2Pac album called Ready 2 Die? Remember throwing up in your mouth a little bit when you first heard about it? A lot of us do.
Happily, Spiritual State allays all fears almost instantly. The guests are, Haruka Nakamura aside, all people that have worked with Nujabes before - Pase Rock, Substantial, and Uyama Hiroto all appeared on both Modal Soul and Metaphorical Music, and the first two also had their own albums produced by Nujabes - and the sound is still exactly what it always has been, blissed-out hip-hop with strong jazz influences and the occasional touch of world music.
The instant standouts are "Gone Are the Days", which ties a hip-house beat to a sample that sounds suspiciously like John Coltrane's "Naima", and "Far Fowls", which blends a sample of what sounds like a hocchiku with delicate acoustic guitar arpeggios, while the Pase Rock tracks, "City Light" and "Yes", are as solid as ever - I don't rate him that highly as an MC, but it's hard to deny that his laid-back style suits Nujabes' music perfectly. Yet for all the lovely touches throughout (the soft organ entering on "Prayer" is a particularly special one) it's disappointing to note that it's low on standouts compared to Modal Soul in particular - nothing hits quite the same heights as "Thank You" and "World's End Rhapsody".
That makes it tough to react to; if Nujabes was still alive, we'd call this a placeholder album while we waited for his next big move. But of course, he's dead. There won't be any move. There won't be anything else at all. So where does that leave this album, still magnificent at points but undeniably weaker that the two before it?
Here's where - it leaves Nujabes alongside the likes of Ian Curtis, Robert Johnson, Nick Drake, Yonlu, Jimi Hendrix, and Jeff Buckley; all artists that left behind bodies of works that were depressingly small, but incredible in their crystalline decidation to one idea and one mood. Spiritual State might not move forward the ideas from his first two albums at all, but in a lot of ways, it's better that it doesn't. Let's remember Nujabes the way we would have remembered him if this album hadn't been released, and treat this as a gentle, welcome augmentation to a legacy that probably didn't need it. This does add one crucial string to his bow, though; the acknowledgement that his C-grade material sounds like most people's A-grade best.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4.5
sucks you didn't dig it as much, but review read like a low/mid-4 so whatevs. ;]
Digging: Candlemass - Psalms For The Dead Digging: Candlemass - Psalms For The Dead | | |
Was not expecting this to be written by you, I must say. Anyways, great review, although I do ultimately disagree with a bit of what you've said.
Digging: Between the Buried and Me - Colors Digging: Between the Buried and Me - Colors
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Good rating.
Digging: Bon Appetite - For Emeril, Forever Ago Digging: Bon Appetite - For Emeril, Forever Ago
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Sweet Santa hats
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album's okay but yeah this was needed to balance out some of the typical sputnik overhype in the other thread
Digging: Thinking Fellers Local 282 - Strangers From the Universe
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123
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Solid review, in terms of Nujabes I agree it's pretty much a 3.5.. had it been anyone else however..
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"album's okay but yeah this was needed to balance out some of the typical sputnik overhype in the other thread"
A lot of people are going to overhype it because of Jun's death, but I legitimately love it, and I'm sure many do. I would go as far as to say that Jun Seba is my favorite hip-hop producer of all-time.
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
If I could take this review and Dante's review and put them together, then that would pretty much be my feelings towards this.
Digging: Suis La Lune - Riala Digging: Suis La Lune - Riala | | |
awesome
Digging: Neil Young - Greatest Hits
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Pretty album art
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Album is a solid 2.7. The review is forced - take a neg.
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Is that summary a backhanded compliment or insult?
Digging: Josh Garrels - Love and War and The Sea In Between Digging: Josh Garrels - Love and War and The Sea In Between
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I'd say it's simply the truth.
Digging: Garbage - Not Your Kind Of People Digging: Garbage - Not Your Kind Of People | | | Album Rating: 4
Hey put Dante's review back on the front page!
Digging: Solterra - Soul, Earth, Sun Digging: Solterra - Soul, Earth, Sun | | |
after spinning this I've come to agree with the summary
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Woah there, stealing my dibs
Digging: Amon Tobin - Amon Tobin
| | | Album Rating: 4
Yes! Nick!
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NUJABES 5/5
Digging: -
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Wow, this looks sick. Going to grab it right now.
Digging: Mount Eerie - Clear Moon Digging: Mount Eerie - Clear Moon | | | |
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