Innocent Country 2＜Candyland Vinyl＞

Quelle Chris and Chris Keys have proven to be crucial collaborators over the course of the 2010s. On 2015s Innocent Country, their first full album together, Keys nostalgic, abstract beats fit Quelles playful and profound reflections like a glove, and Keys helmed some of the highlights of Quelles subsequent, more ambitious solo efforts, particularly Obamacare from 2019s Guns. Coming after that astounding release as well as Quelles Everythings Fine, his acclaimed 2018 joint venture with wife Jean Grae, Innocent Country 2 sounds mellower and more casual in some ways, yet its roughly twice as long as the original Innocent Country, and both its extensive guest list and audio fidelity are more in line with Quelles later albums. Keys productions are generally clean and polished, filled with jazzy pianos and warm rhythms rather than the more disjointed sample-choppery of before. Quelles rhymes focus on maintaining sanity and happiness throughout all of lifes obstacles, and while these are easily his most mature lyrics to date, he still injects the album with plenty of satire and surrealism. Outro/Honest concludes with an angry voice mail message from comedian Marcella Arguello, berating a partner who wont pick up or return her calls, yet posts on Twitter at that very moment. On Living Happy, Quelle describes dying and ascending to heaven, only to be greeted by angels performing every hip-hop dance move imaginable. Departing slightly from the smooth, self-assured tone of the album, the darker, more sinister Bottle Black Power Buy the Business sounds more like a Guns outtake, with a trap-ish bang to the beats and more forceful rhymes. Graphic Bleed Outs juxtaposes hard-edged bars with lush strings and even a flute solo, ending up with a chorus from Tune-Yards Merrill Garbus, lamenting a shattered relationship. Two lengthy posse cuts and a brief outro close out the album. Over a sludgy beat and church pianos, Earl Sweatshirt and Denmark Vessey deliver heady guest verses during Mirage, which ends with a motivational sermon from Big Sen. When You Fall... retains a bit of the gospel organ glow but feels much more down to earth, underlining the albums message of striving for a better tomorrow while accepting and staying true to yourself. ~ Paul Simpson