Review Summary: Flatlining.
What exactly is the point of Action Bronson? For all the bravado of such a moniker, it’s rare to find a single moment of energy on the New York mainstay’s eighth studio album, named with about as much finesse as any C-grade scenegrind band left behind in 2007. It can’t be for lack of personality - anyone familiar with Bronson’s side hustles in the entertainment industry, not least his role as host and creator of food-pornography series
***, That’s Delicious, will tell you the man has an innate charisma that should make his rap career far more engaging than it is. And yet, it appears that charm fails to materialise when it matters the most. In a world in which bloated 20 song, hour-long releases have become somewhat of a standard in the rap mainstream, it takes a special kind of dreariness to make ten tracks, totalling a shade over 30 minutes, just as much of a slog to get through.
It doesn’t start off too poorly - a sizeable portion of the album’s first half sees Bronson throw out a few of his classically bizarre punchlines over some solid beats from producer Daringer (who proves to be this album’s MVP), perhaps peaking early with an Usher interpolation portraying a scene in which the rapper watches pornstar Teanna Trump giving oral sex while he does push-ups.
Nourish a Thug stands out as somewhat of a highlight as Bronson shows a little more grit and power in his delivery, which unfortunately proves to be a rare event in the latter half of the project. A couple of of particularly uninspired features from frequent collaborator Meyhem Lauren, combined with some of underground darling The Alchemist’s laziest beats in recent memory, drag any momentum Bachlava the Doctor carried from its opening run to a screeching halt around the time we get to tracks such as
Citrus Wahoo, whose grating, unchanging beat at least sparks a little more interest, but only in pondering how on earth it managed to get past quality control.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the more relaxed vibe offered here - Bronson himself has just hit the other side of 40 and has little need to prove himself hungry over a decade into his career - but to do so this lethargically relegates the inherent triumph of sustained success to a half-assed consideration towards simply maintaining the status quo with as little effort as possible, something no amount of WWE or culinary references can provoke excitement for.
