Collaborative album Voir Dire pairs The Alchemists soul-sampling, mellow roasted production with Earl Sweatshirts lucid dreaming flows, an unlikely but surprisingly complementary match. Earls 2018 album Some Rap Songs changed certain sectors of hip hop forever with its fragmented production and fever dream rhymes, pioneering a sound that didnt quite fit into lofi circles but was more alien than almost any other album that made it to the top 20 of that years Billboard charts. His work since has been just as experimental if not more, so its almost a shock to hear him on Alchemists relatively tame beats like "Mac Deuce" or the synthy R&B loop of "Heat Check." If anything, Voir Dire proves that Earl can shine in any context, bringing an inventive, circuitous diagram of rhymes to Alchemists deep-groove riffs on "Vin Skully" and transforming the straightforward gospel pianos and bumpy drums of "Mancala" (one of two tracks on the project featuring Vince Staples) into something puzzlingly cerebral. MIKE brings out even more of Earls cryptographic rap tendencies when they duet with head-spinning bars on "Sentry." Voir Dire pushes the bounds of both Alchemists old school warmth and Earls heady verses, landing someplace new that neither would have gotten to on their own. ~ Fred Thomas
Rovi
元オッド・フューチャーの奇才アール・スウェットシャツとドープな作品を量産しているアルケミストによる、待たれていたコラボ作がフィジカル化。気怠く歌うようにラップするアールのスタイルにマッチしたソウルフルでスロウ~ミディアムなトラックが用意され、荘厳なゴスペルを下敷きにした"Mancala"など2曲に盟友とも言えるヴィンス・ステイプルズが参加。
bounce (C)Masso 187um
タワーレコード(vol.483(2024年2月25日発行号)掲載)