Review Summary: Saturated
When
Control System came out back in 2012, one of the more interesting aspects was hearing Ab-Soul’s wordplay cover subjects of religion, conspiracy theories, politics, and his life. It created a really tense atmosphere that managed to keep songs like “The Book of Soul” or “Terrorist Threats” on replay even in 2014. With
These Days… however, what we get is a lot of ideas and experimentation without any album flow or structure. “Twact,” “Nevermind” and “Hunnid Stax” all showcase the sounds of an attempt at radio success, especially in “Twact” which sounds like it was stolen straight from YG’s new record. And then on the opposite side of the hip-hop spectrum we have tracks like “W.R.O.C.,” “God’s Reign” and “Tree of Life” that hearken back to
Control System with Soul dropping thought-provoking bars like, “With a dollar and a dream/why you think money is green?/ Color of vegetation/the most important thing, trees.” It’s just
These Days… is so scatterbrained that the very next track after “Tree of Life” see’s Soul start out with lines like, “Who gettin' that money?/ Real motha***in' money/ That’s all I do dawg/ got cashed out, got ***ed up, then I passed out.” It’s as though
These Days… is a brain storm of ideas that got put into an album without any direction.
And it isn’t just the topical themes that are standing in opposite spectrums; the production doesn’t seem to know what face to put on either. There are two beat switches much akin to those found throughout Kendrick Lamar’s GKMC, except on here they are utterly pointless and don’t do anything to the album except for add a hidden track at the end of “Tree of Life” and “Just Have Fun.” Again, it just feels like Soul had an idea but didn’t feel like putting enough effort into expanding it. On the track “Nevermind” the beat seems entirely too slowed down for its own trap-flavored good, and its inclusion of static to change up the beat each 30 seconds just doesn’t make sense. In reality, there is so much going on in the production of “Nevermind” that it’s a song that truly epitomizes
These Days… as a whole. One second it’s a slowed down trap affair, then the static comes in and changes it into an R&B sound only to change again into an acid soaked guitar lead with the slowed down trap beat coming back.
It’s not as though the tracks when seen by themselves are all that bad though. “Kendrick Lamar’s Interlude” ends up being up being one of the best tracks on the LP, with Kendrick coming through with a very high-energy verse that goes well with the crazed jazz instrumentals backing him. However, the song just feels like Kendrick is doing Ab-Soul the same favor that Soul did for him back on
Section .80 and nothing more than that. The raw-audio recording found at the end of the closing track “W.R.O.C.” sees Ab-Soul up against Daylyt in a rap battle. What turns out to be a really cool, albeit
really long, track where Soul and Daylyt go back and forth with verses, ends up being a real ending testament of “What the hell did I just listen to?”
Sadly, that is a question that was raised for the album as a whole after I finished listening to it. Sure, the idea of the album is supposed to be Ab-Soul’s view of mainstream hip-hop as well as himself “these days” but the way he goes about showing us his view is nauseating when the album is digested as a whole. What
These Days… ends up being is more so diarrhea of the mouth rather than an introspective look at the current times and themes. And that by itself makes the album a disappointment. Not because the tracks by themselves are bad or that Ab-Soul’s wordplay is poor, but because the LP just feels so unpolished and poorly structured after two years of delays and being pushed back. That ends up being the real disappointment.
