The Ecstatic

The Ecstatic

Customer Review:
I put Mos Def up there with Common, Q-Tip, Lupe Fiasco, The Roots, and Kanye. His debut "Black on both sides" was brilliant and flawless in my opinion.

He returns with his 4th album, "The ecstatic", and it more than meets my expectations. Experimental, different from what is out there, and still accessible. The 16 tracks clock in at a little over 45 minutes so the songs cut right to the chase, with lyrics touching largely on life and war.

"Auditorium" features Slick Rick and has a Middle Eastern feel (with Iraq references in the lyrics) and a scat-filled coda. Awesome! Continuing along that vein (with some Islamic chants interspersed) is "Waheed".

"Priority" is a piano sprinkled groovy rap with nice strings. The bouncy clap-filled "Quiet dog bite hard" has a booming bassline, while "Life in marvelous times" is dramatically narrated, like some theatrical score with icy sounding synth strings.

"No hay nada mas" finds him singing/mumbling Wyclef-style over a smouldering Latin-tinged groove, entirely in Spanish. "Pretty danger" is Funk/Soul/Jazz-tinged, while "Workers comp" is Reggae-tinged (with Mos Def rapping/singing). Beginning to get the picture? No two songs sound alike on this disc. Also, the flow from track to track is brilliant, a complete album in every respect.

The piano driven "Roses" features Georgia Anne Muldrow's soothing vocals over an airy Neo Soul groove, D'angelo or Raphael Saadiq style. The retro sounding "History" features Talib Kweli, while closing is the stunning horn-peppered "Casa bey", sounding like something from a Blaxploitation movie.

What a superb CD this is. Definitely (along with K'Naan's "Troubadour") my favourite Hip Hop CD this year, and one of my favourites all round.

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