Review Summary: They only hang you once.
The Night Took Us In Like Family works so smoothly, it’s a wonder why L’Orange and Jeremiah Jae didn’t join forces sooner. L’Orange favouring one prominent MC with only a couple of guest spots is an interesting move, allowing his "crime jazz”-inspired production to latch onto something stable. It's a more progressive storyline, rather than a slipshod arrangement of call-ins and sketches. Here, the beats act less as attention-grabbers, and more as eclectic backdrops to Jae’s deeds. Furthermore, the rapper has a proper outlet to brandish his much-improved lyricism, diving into the lawless 1930s-ish memoirs with unruffled flair. His subdued delivery finds solace in L’Orange’s gritty ambience, and the partners in crime unfurl tales of the struggles of faux-brotherhood, forming bonds with those quick to sever it in order to escape law’s reach. Backstabbers are quickly expended. “Do My Best to Carry On” stutter steps with skipping records and saxophone blips as Jae resiliently trudges forward.
Not entirely alone, “All I Need” sees the duo lean on Gift of Gab (one-half of Blackalicious), whose veteran-level verse is an early highlight. Homeboy Sandman's bars on
"Ignore The Man To Your Right" are cool, calm, and collected, riding the punchy drum kicks with finesse. Still, the sparsity of guest features puts pressure on Jae, which he addresses intensely under the guise of levelheadedness, like his anti-heroic character's nature reflects. For our comprehension, the album is divided into segments, and titles like “Introducing A Conspicuous Man” and “Revenge & Escape” trace the concept like ill-boding scribbles on a brick wall.
The Night is an album of secrecy: an unspoken promise sealed with blood between the rapper and his dark environment. The antepenultimate chiller “Death Valley” shows the grim result, with Jae at his most remorseless:
“line ‘em up start firin’/squad in the wagon outside, keep your eyes peeled/black windshield, manoeuvre the big wheels/stand on top of the hill, divide the big kill.”
Jeremiah Jae, while committed to the “quiet killer” persona, could afford to break character and fly off the handle once or twice.
The Night is devoid of late-night bangers, being more suited to drinking-to-forget in the wee hours, serving as a slow burn. Listeners who aren’t immersed in L’Orange’s devoutly neo-noir production will be quick to cast it off as sluggish, missing the countless nuances. “Kicking Glass” sees plunger-muted trumpets blend with a soulful vocal sample. “Underworld” features doo-wop vibrato, exaggerated with a transistor radio tone, Fallout-style. In “Kind of Like Life”, L’Orange’s production speaks of smoking barrels and sunsets, meshing with the sordid mobster mentality. The list goes on. Finally, instrumental checkpoint “Macabre” drops the curtains with a gloomy double bass stumbling over jittery snares until a cleverly-placed vocal excerpt leaves little to the imagination regarding the duo’s fate. Just like the album itself, it wouldn’t have made headlines. If
The Night Took Us In Like Family hits hard, it's in the messy details - the ones the newspaper leaves out.
