I don't know if anyone has ever made this comparison before, but the Wu-Tang Clan is a lot like The Simpsons, both have been around seemingly forever, both were major parts of my childhood and continue to be part of my adult life, and both have so much material out that you can almost go mad trying to catch up. At one time The Simpsons had just 13 episodes out, and people were going nuts for more episodes, little did anyone know we would get about 400 and counting. At one time The Wu had just one amazing and brilliant album out "Enter the 36 Chambers" but now with almost every member having their own side project or solo gig, and so many Wu albums out it's easy to feel like you've missed something. Me being the nerd I am, I would definitely call my self a " Completists" it's hard for me to really like something if I haven't seen everything or listened to every song by one artist, and if I miss any regular season Lakers games I always feel like a fair-weather fan, so I kind of feel funny about doing a review of the new Wu Album, having not listened to there past efforts like Wu-Massacare or the most recent Rakwon album. Having said that, I was in the mood for some Wu-Tang, and noticed they had a new album out, sounds like a good enough excuse to me to get back on the Wu-Tang Bandwagon.
After jumping back on the Wu-Tang Bandwagon or Wu-Wagon for short I can say this about the new album, it's a mixed bag at best, there are some really good songs even a couple of great ones, but they are few and far between, most of the songs range from just ok to poor, it hardly felt like I was listening to a Wu album. The production is rather poor as well, RZA a long time member and producer had very little to do with this album and it shows, the beats are very generic and as a result it's hard to tell one song from another. But as good as the production has been in the past that wasn't the reason people listened to Wu-Tang, they listened because at one time Wu was lyrically unmatched, the lyrics were always clever, funny and thought-provoking and only a few times on this new album did I feel that way.
The album isn't bad though, it's just average, but normally with The Wu you expect greater, the tracks that shine are really good, "Start the Show" is an excellent opener, "Laced Cheeba" and "Meteor Hammer" are very quality tracks, and "Black Diamonds" and the title track "Legendary Weapons" are really excellent. It's no surprise to me that 4 of the 5 contain Ghostface Killah, in my opinion the best rapper in the Wu-Tang Clan. But that is only 5 of the 14 tracks, there are 3 skits which don't add anything, and 6 other tracks that range from average to poor, but maybe it's not that they are poor tracks, they are just boring, one thing I don't usually associate with the Wu is boring.
I suppose an average Wu-Tang album is still better than most other Hip-Hop efforts, and maybe my expectations were just a little high since this was the first Wu affiliated album I've listened to since Ghostface's 2009 "Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City" which was brilliant, so maybe I was expecting the Wu-Tang Clan of old, but if The Simpsons has taught us anything it's that sometimes it's hard to age gracefully, after 20 years it's hard to be just as clever and witty, Wu-Tang seems to be entering this stage of their career, hopefully this is just in minor hiccup in an other wise brilliant catalog, and not the start of things to come.
After jumping back on the Wu-Tang Bandwagon or Wu-Wagon for short I can say this about the new album, it's a mixed bag at best, there are some really good songs even a couple of great ones, but they are few and far between, most of the songs range from just ok to poor, it hardly felt like I was listening to a Wu album. The production is rather poor as well, RZA a long time member and producer had very little to do with this album and it shows, the beats are very generic and as a result it's hard to tell one song from another. But as good as the production has been in the past that wasn't the reason people listened to Wu-Tang, they listened because at one time Wu was lyrically unmatched, the lyrics were always clever, funny and thought-provoking and only a few times on this new album did I feel that way.
The album isn't bad though, it's just average, but normally with The Wu you expect greater, the tracks that shine are really good, "Start the Show" is an excellent opener, "Laced Cheeba" and "Meteor Hammer" are very quality tracks, and "Black Diamonds" and the title track "Legendary Weapons" are really excellent. It's no surprise to me that 4 of the 5 contain Ghostface Killah, in my opinion the best rapper in the Wu-Tang Clan. But that is only 5 of the 14 tracks, there are 3 skits which don't add anything, and 6 other tracks that range from average to poor, but maybe it's not that they are poor tracks, they are just boring, one thing I don't usually associate with the Wu is boring.
I suppose an average Wu-Tang album is still better than most other Hip-Hop efforts, and maybe my expectations were just a little high since this was the first Wu affiliated album I've listened to since Ghostface's 2009 "Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City" which was brilliant, so maybe I was expecting the Wu-Tang Clan of old, but if The Simpsons has taught us anything it's that sometimes it's hard to age gracefully, after 20 years it's hard to be just as clever and witty, Wu-Tang seems to be entering this stage of their career, hopefully this is just in minor hiccup in an other wise brilliant catalog, and not the start of things to come.
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