Album Review: Ghostface Killah - 36 Seasons
Why does Ghostface Killah sound so old?
That’s the question that I asked myself right out of the
gate on his latest solo album, 36 Seasons,
(another) total concept album that arrives a little over a year after his 12 Reasons to Die, from 2013, and
strangely, arrive a week after his work with the Wu Tang Clan on their
“reunion” record A Better Tomorrow.
Ghostface is now in his mid-40s, and at this point, he’s
pretty far removed from the twenty-something that dropped the infamous first
line on Wu Tang’s Enter The 36 Chambers—“Ghostface catch the blast of a hype verse,
my glock burst, leave in a hearse, I did worse”—delivered with what, at he
time, was an incredibly unique voice in hip hop.
Of all of the nine original members of the Wu Tang Clan,
Ghostface has arguably had the most consistent output as far as a solo career
goes, including the stunning Ironman,
its follow up Supreme Clientele, and
his mid 2000s success with Fishscale.
Sure, there’s been some misses, but it seems like most people are willing to
look beyond things like Ghostdini,
and overall, his solo canon seems to be well received by music critics, and
occasionally well received by fans.
36 Seasons is 100%
storytelling. The record ties in with a comic book that doubles as the liner
notes for the album, telling the story of a vigilante that has been locked up
for 36 seasons (nine years) and comes back home. The premise, obviously, is a
bit of a stretch, and it’s not like you can really pick and choose songs off of
this and remove them from the context of the album. It’s mean to be digested as
a whole, and as a whole, the entire concept is admirable.
But admiration doesn’t make this a good album. But it’s also
not a horrible album. In comparison to A
Better Tomorrow, it seems amazing. But outside of that, as a latter day
Ghostface record, or even a hip-hop record in 2014, it simply just exists.
Production wise, similar to A Better Tomorrow, and Ghostface’s last effort, it relies on live
instrumentation as opposed to beats or samples. The decision here is create a
big, cinematic sound to mirror the concept behind the album. And similar to A Better Tomorrow, it is unfortunately
flaccid and bloated musically.
And why is there a straight up cover of “A Thin Line Between
Love and Hate” by The Pretenders on this album?
The last thing I expect from a Ghostface Killah record is to
hear a cover of a Pretenders song. But within the first third of 36 Seasons, Ghost steps away for a
moment and allows The Revelations to take over. They proceed to not so much
butcher the song, but it isn’t great. That is for sure.
36 Seasons is
incredibly guest heavy, calling on Kandace Springs to fill the role of
“Bamboo,” Ghost’s love interest, and AZ as Ghost’s former friend. You may
recall AZ as the dude who rapped the hook on Nas’s “Life’s a Bitch.” Here, he’s
given little to do that would steal the spotlight like that, or live on in
hip-hop history.
One would think that an entire concept album based around
the idea of a comic book vigilante would be inspiring, but unfortunately, 36 Seasons is very uninspired. It’s
boring and barely can hold a listener’s attention with this idea. When people
talk about Ghostface Killah’s solo canon, they go right away to things like Ironman and Supreme Clientele. This however, will never be remembered so
fondly. If anything, it’s a footnote arriving late in the game, looked back on as
an oddity.
Ghost was accused of not being very present during the
sessions for A Better Tomorrow. Here,
he sounds equally as listless with his own solo career. No longer that scrappy,
hungry MC that he was on two decades ago, he’s settled into the role of an
“elder statesman” of hip hop, fighting to maintain relevancy in today’s
overcrowded market. Not the “business, MAN,” that a contemporary like Jay Z has
turned into, Ghostface continues to hustle hard, but the product has been
stepped on too many times.
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