"To all the times I doubted in my abilities,
all the qualm, all the lost possibilities,
all the pride, all the lies, all the 'Billie Jean's,
all the pies, all the fries, all the chili cheese.
I gotta say peace,
to the TV and my fetish for the pastries.
No more shopping, no more credit card on Macy's,
but you're tight- I just get it down on Jay Street."
from Into the Night
Chords solo LP debut , "The Garden
Around the Mansion", was a straight shooting album about
boasting, battling, romanticizing marijuana. His second album,
"Things We Do for Things", was more complex- exploring
consumerism and politics along with a more mature sound made it
harder to grasp but solid nonetheless. On "Looped State of
Mind", his third solo album, Chords has done all the production
himself. The album represents an artistic growth so vast that it's
hard to see how it ties in with "The Garden Around the Mansion".
Is it hip hop? Kind of. Does he even rap? I guess.
His vocal style on the album is one
which switches seamlessly between slow paced rhyming and straight up
singing. The beats shift between classic east coast drum loops and a
more esoteric style of electronic sounding traditional music. It's a
sound fairly unique to him, and it sounds good.
Lyrically the album deals with artistry
in general, and pursuing what might be a pipe dream of making it big
in the music industry specifically. Coping with being constantly
broke and anonymous. Living in New York. His wordplay is overall
solid, while still conveying an honest artistic message.
Where the album falls short for me is
that the mellow theme is never broken, the album starts out slow
paced and never really shifts gears. I know Chords has a wider range
as far as his rhyming is concerned, and it kills me that he never
delivers any fast paced bars. That's his choice I guess, but
unfortunately it leaves the album sounding a bit over the top
monotonous.
High point of the album: One Man Show
Low point of the album: Walk Away
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