Review Summary: Freedom of Thought is an enjoyable trip-hop record, but its appeal fades fast.
Trip Hop has always been a cool genre. It’s the sort of music no-one ever feels embarrassed about playing at a party or blasting from their car windows. Even when pulled up against that scorching Mitsubishi Evo in your rusting baby Kia, the beats refuse to cease. And with
Freedom of Thought – the second LP from UK producer Ghost – things haven’t changed. It stays true to the genre’s conventions; it’s a safe bet on keeping people happy, if nothing else. The problem with
Freedom of Thought is exactly that. It is nothing else.
Three parts RJD2, two parts Nujabes and one part DJ Shadow, Ghost combines the most appealing aspects of each respected artist and weaves them meticulously into his 18-track long album. And, for the first couple listens, he excels. The crashing cymbals on real opener ‘Return Journey’ immediately transform you into one of those nodding-head dogs, while the following track ‘It’s All Love’ is sure to get you unconsciously poking out your tongue trying to remember which advert you heard it from. Guest rappers turn the trip-hop into hip-hop on ‘Elevate’ and ‘Move Strong’ among others and, while not necessarily wowing, their rhymes are enjoyable and somewhat impressive. No track really sounds so much the same to condemn, but they still all sound distinctly trip hop (so much RHYTHM), so for a fun forty minute road trip with mates there should be no complaining.
But while this all works fantastically the first time around, smiles beaming, toes tapping, everyone’s your best friend and we’re all taking pictures etc, it all begins to fall apart with extended listening. Ghost does well at imitating the style of early RJD2 on tracks like ‘The Day After’ and ‘Way You Feel’ and the Nujabes-mimicking of ‘Invisible World’ is practically flawless, but for some reason it just doesn’t hold up. Bar a few tracks which seem to show some genuine originality and panache (Daze, From The Beginning, Alive), everything begins to sound dated; stale; almost totally void of charm. The record sounds too familiar, and that’s not to accuse Ghost of copying the trip-hop rulebook word-for-word, because it doesn’t sound like that, but it does become tiresome in its lack of adventure and experimentation.
In all honesty, despite being a likeable genre, most everything that comes out of the programmed world of trip hop is entirely forgettable. Ask your average hip hop listener to name ten decent trip hop albums from different artists and they’re usually left tongue-tied. Strange, considering it’s accessibility, how difficult it is to impress in the area. And despite doing all his homework, Ghost is yet another producer who fails to impress. If Ghost does achieve something with this album though, besides a couple rocking road trips, its providing us with evidential proof that you just can't copy charisma. Save a few genuinely solid tracks,
Freedom of Thought is one trip-hop record which can go wait in the car.
