Review Summary: Full of experiments, but when it's good, it's really, really good.
BLU - York
Blu should be one of the bigger names in the rap game. This album had the potential to be a
College Dropout-type refresher for hip-hop, an introduction to the underground scene in L.A. Instead, the album goes by with barely a peep, and a few votes on Sputnik to spare.
It's a damn shame.
Some background:
York is a re-designed 2011 mixtape called
NoYork!, which Blu handed out to fans while performing at a festival. After a deal fell through with Warner Bros. to release the album, two years went by before Nature Sounds finally released it.
York is a tad shorter than
NoYork!, but otherwise, no major differences.
When
York is good, it is absolutely wonderful. Blu pulls a lot of experiments on this one; no one is going to mistake any tracks on here for any tracks on debut album
Below the Heavens. The production is almost flawless on
SLNGBNGRs, with video-gamey synths swishing from speaker to speaker until going into full-on overload mode for the last third of the song. Jimetta Rose sings a killer hook on
Spring Winter Summer Fall, and Nia Andrews has an equally impressive feature on my pick for favorite track of 2013,
My Sunshine. Blu also shows off his lyrical chops on
Keep Pushinn: "Kissed the interviewer's hand, we weren't properly introduced / They danced through topics while skimming the truth / Skinny dipping in each other's optical visions nude", amidst a beautifully crafted piano loop.
All highlights aside, though, here and there Blu's experiments dip into mediocrity. On the otherwise so-so track
Annie Hall, Tiombe Lockhart sounds like a bad Paris Hilton impersonator walked into the booth and started going at it. Blu more or less talks through
Hours, and pulls easily the weakest hook of the album. Otherwise, the rest of the album fits with the overall lo-fi production, with 8-bit synths swirling all around.
Overall, Blu has crafted a fantastic gem, but a gem that has remained hidden since it's been released. One can only hope that a more popular release by him will shed this album some light.
Recommended Tracks:
My Sunshine
Keep Pushinn
Spring Winter Summer Fall
SLNGBNGRs
Doin Nothin'
