As far as I'm concerned there are 2 decent tracks, Run the Jewels and the Ernie Fresh collab (and one of those is practically ruined with the use of a fake vinyl crackle).
I understand Shadow is trying to stretch boundaries and himself, but in doing so hes created an LP that I can only describe as a hipster mixtape trying to impress with diversity. It lacks flow and cohesion.
He's lost all the soul. Since Endroducing I feel his LPs have got progressively worse. This being an all time low.
If he's bored producing decent hip hop, I think he should keep these meanderings to himself. And thats coming from someone with a very wide musical taste.
I'm lost as to who he's trying to appeal to.
Pretentious.

End Rant.....

Quote
deathhop
As far as I'm concerned there are 2 decent tracks, Run the Jewels and the Ernie Fresh collab (and one of those is practically ruined with the use of a fake vinyl crackle).
I understand Shadow is trying to stretch boundaries and himself, but in doing so hes created an LP that I can only describe as a hipster mixtape trying to impress with diversity. It lacks flow and cohesion.
He's lost all the soul. Since Endroducing I feel his LPs have got progressively worse. This being an all time low.
If he's bored producing decent hip hop, I think he should keep these meanderings to himself. And thats coming from someone with a very wide musical taste.
I'm lost as to who he's trying to appeal to.
Pretentious.

End Rant.....

^Fantastic honesty. Now I GOTTA hear it.

Speaking personally, I'm a huge DJ Shadow fan especially his DJ work and I agree completely with this.

Quote
deathhop

Since Endroducing I feel his LPs have got progressively worse.

That was his unassuming unpretentious newb breakthrough classic. He had nothing to prove, he was a nobody and he just did it. He basically dropped an instrumental album for and by cratediggers.

So I completely agree with "since then he got progressively worse". Private Press was good, not as good but still pretty good. Outsider was ok, not horrible but already showing signs of that incohesive sound you mentioned.

Quote
deathhop

I understand Shadow is trying to stretch boundaries and himself, but in doing so hes created an LP that I can only describe as a hipster mixtape trying to impress with diversity.

Genre hopping mixtapes can be cool when done right, but genre hopping albums is thin ice territory. If it's too diverse you lose flow. That was the problem with his album the Outsider. Good stuff on there. No flow, no "soul" as you eloquently put it.

Then came his album "the less you know the better". At first I kinda liked it. It was like listening to a freak show. On second listen I knew I hated it. You cannot get thru that album 2 times without cringing. It has zero flow, it's ADD as hell, and the pretentious level is high. If the album has no flow, it's not an album to a collector any more, it's a few ok singles.

I can't say anything about the new 2016 album. The only song I heard off this new album was his title track.






^IMHO, not horrible but a whole lot of nothing is going on there. Watching that I'm not sure who he's trying to reach anymore either.

Anywayz...

Thanks for the great breakdown deathhop, I definitely gotta hear it now.

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“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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Word , I listened to some of this album on YouTube and though it was aweful . I would go a little more in depth , but I couldn't get into it enough to form a true opinion . Honestly , Introducing and Preemptive Strike is about as far as I care to get into Shadow's catalog . Those two albums are classics in my opinion and I think he's been downhill every since . I take that back , I did like the stuff he did for the Dark Days soundtrack ...

Ugly Duckling - Journey To Anywhere in the headphones ...

Whilst working at home, 2 Crews....