Eardrum Lives Up To The Hype...

i finally got EARDRUM yesterday...
it's a nice record. a few joints ("Hostile Gospel [deliver us]", "Give 'Em Hell", "In The Mood", "Eat To Live", and "Country Cousins") stand out at the moment. in what his press release calls a "career defining album" with "hard hitting beats and inventive rhymes that serve to not only entertain, but also to educate" Kweli holds up his end of it, dropping a nice, classic record. critics will no doubt compare this record unfavorably to Reflection Eternal's Train Of Thought or the Blackstar album (that Kweli created with Hi-Tek and the mighty Mos Def, respectively), but i would say this record is a return to that kind of glory (not the height, but the type...). while Mos is conspicuously absent, Hi-Tek and a slew of other guests keep the balance, well BALANCED!

i like Kweli, and this record is what i've come to expect from him. like many of the artists i like, Kweli bashes christianity often. i don't get mad about it, because the church needs reform. i'm happy to elaborate if you wanna know how i feel about all that... on topic, i already have some of the songs on here (Talib gave away songs FREE on "LIBeration" w/MadLib and the "BlackSmith: The Movement" mixtape w/StongArmSteady, Jean Grae etc), and know many from mySpace promos...

with the bonus tracks, Eardrum weighs in at a slightly bloated 20 songs. if you cut 7 songs, it'd be a near-perfect outing... as is, a little long with little too much filler to be considered perfect. all said, a step in the right direction for an artist who constantly insists he is not a solo artist. instead, Kweli insists he is "a frontman for a group of artists, lovers, poets and regular everyday folk that make up my body of work." As a person who believes that most of today's solo hip hop artists belong in groups not on their own, i applaud Kweli's attitude... and as long as Kweli is unable to get together with co-conspirators like Mos and Tek, records like this one will do in a pinch.

holla!

samax.

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