I went ahead and bit . I hope it's good !! It's De La , so I can't imagine it's terrible .

So I got my 2LP Clear vinyl version of this last night...

De La Soul - And the Anonymous Nobody LP (AOI Records) 2016



^I waited a very long time for another De La Album. One of my favorite if not thee favorite Hip Hop group of mine. I have every album, tons of singles, all kinds of collabs, and I wasn't about to miss out on this limited edition one after waiting that long.

That said I eagerly listened to the entire album last night. 2 words come to mind eclectic and epic. Eclectic is self explanatory, it's got all kinds of guest artists from all kinds of genres making it a diverse sounding album. Epic on the other hand isn't the typical millennial version of everything is "Epic man!" I mean epic as in it's so diverse, so eclectic so vast, that I can't even nail it down as a rap album. If I didn't know De La Soul was a rap group, I might put them in the rock section along with other 50/50 groups like the Gorillaz.

I know they are Hip Hop yet if you randomly dropped a needle on this album on certain grooves without knowing what it was you'd call it rock or R&B or something else. Sure, there's still their signature skits, still has it's head nodding dope rapping moments in there, but all the other stuff in there kind of deludes the Hip Hop album feel.

It's like fine wine or dark coffee, this is an acquired taste album. There is no way I'm ready to review it after only one listen.

I like it, but simultaneously I don't get it yet. It's that fucking vast and deep. It requires attentive listening to even figure out what's going on not passive listening. It will take multiple listens before I decide if I really like it or if I just want to like it cuz it's De La.

In a way this reminds me of the DJ Shadow phenom. Shadow, also one of my favorite DJs and producers, has gotten so deep into his digging world that his latest album is just an eclectic clusterfuck of pretentious "look what I can do now!" genre-hopping styles that isn't cohesive sounding as an album should be as one piece. It's palatable at points combined with buzz kill WTF is he doing here? shit every other song. You can't get into one mood so you get tired and shut it off.

The Anonymous Nobody isn't quite as bad as that, but it makes me wonder if it's finally happening to De La Soul. Are they finally too smart and side-talent hungry to stay within the realm of Hip Hop or is this just an acquired taste and I haven't given it enough listens.

Some albums are like that, I don't like them at first because I don't get them, but then I love them afterwards. I hope this is that, but upon first listen I can't say. I'll give it a few more fair listens before deciding for myself.

That said, I need to add, all other De La Soul albums were not at all like that with me. Each one was instantly gratifying and simple and real because it was them being simply De La Soul without anything complex. Their simplicity formula is gone on this album, I know that much already.

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“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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Interesting comments.
I've read some terrible reviews from people I know, and people I don't.
Guess I'd better check it out soon.

My final review on this album after the second listen:

I highly dislike this album. I am a pretty huge De La Fan, I rank them as my all time favorite HH group, so there was no way I was gonna miss out on this LP when it dropped. That said I had to listen to it 2 times just to make sure my initial first impression wasn't unwarranted, that it was a pile of fluff surrounded by a few good songs.

To be fair the songs that are good are really good, like the David Byrne collab. I don't even like Usher but I thought he did a phenomenal job on his collab. But the ones that are shit are truly shit songs. So it's like a roller coaster listen of highs and lows. Head-nodders surrounded by WTF is this. If they would have taken their best 5 songs on this and made it into a EP it would have been a killer EP.

It was a highly ambitious project for a rap album, and like all ambitious projects they are often done by "old" bands as some kind of hail mary pass, and like most ambitious projects, they are band killers. Most of the time these kind of genre hopping ambitious projects suck and they put a sour taste in your mouth. When a group that you remember being solid on every other album they dropped leaves on an experimental project it's a bit of a buzz kill. This is that time. Please just rap De La. Can you please just rap?

By the time I got to the last song "Exodus" and heard their little farewell speech about how "we did this for the people" and "Saviors, heroes? Nah. Just common contributors hopin' that what we created inspires you to selflessly challenge and contribute." it seriously made me puke in my mouth a little bit. Just rap and shut up with that sappy shit De La.

They will still be one of my favorite groups, but listening twice was a hard pill to swallow and I'll have to be pretty desperate for new music to listen a third time. I hope they can do something closer to home that isn't so pretentious in a few years that'll get this taste out of my mouth.

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“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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^^ this was my fear !! I heard a few tracks and wasn't feelin them , but said " hey , it's d De La , It's gotta be good " . So I went ahead and copped . I think I'll buy it the digital version before I open my copy . I got the opaque yellow copy that's limited to 750 . It's going for $99 on discogs . Maybe I can get some decent trade cash out of it if I hate it . I hate to think that a De La album could be that bad . I will have to hear it in full for myself though ...