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Throughout the whole month of February, Groove In Downtown has been fighting it's way on the charts, sitting so close to the number one spot up until this week, hitting number one on 3 of our Golden charts, including The Golden 15. Have you been one of the many fans to support the continuously growing album? Groove In Downtown, a newly formed duo by the mega successful producers mISTER_b and Nate Alexander, has it's highs and stationary moments.
With a completely different sound than anything we've heard from an album this big, it takes time to get used to but still has that charming quality: big names, intense lyrics and for when things got a little laid back, tracks to smooth tunes. Yet these very qualities have also held this album from exceeding it's full potential at the same time, with songs where big names going to waste, lyrics meant to be intense set back just a notch from being "loved" to "liked" due to the instrumentation and intentional smooth tunes that ultimately come off as lazy and dull, to the point where I didn't like them or dislike them, they just gave off a neutral, "meh" feeling overall. But that's the thing about this album. Though I have one in particular that isn't my favorite, I don't hate a single song on this album. Setting aside personal preferences, the album is pretty darn good, it just has a few junctures where missed opportunities come by the dozen.
One of the biggest examples of this is where Liyah makes her first appearance in the second track, Dope, not rapping like fans would've been expecting but instead singing a song. That was the first mistake. Of course, Liyah sings the track more than well, showing off her elastic talent. This would be perfect to show off for her long overdue album but as a collaboration on another's, it seems almost pointless and more than likely disappointing to anyone who tuned it for Liyah to lay a few bars--I know it was for me. Not saying that displaying something she isn't typically known for in a collab is something I completely advise against (seeing how I take this back later on when she makes me look stupid for doubting her purpose on this album on a later standout track, Free Spirit) but it's the fact that the song itself does nothing for me. Once again, it was meant as a laid back, playful track but it was just leaning more towards downright lazy. Dope was pretty close to boring and a waste of time, especially following an amazing opening track like Choice.
This is not the only song that manages to give me this feeling, Dope only frustrates me the most because someone as skilled as Liyah was there and they didn't use that to the best of their ability. When the other songs committed the same crime, they gave me more of a neutral feeling. When Smoke in the Sky came in with it's video game vibe, I immediately didn't expect much from the song or it's lyrics and I was proven right. Like it's been described as, great song to linger around int he background of a video game but not for an album. Then you have The Hollywood Star a song with considerable lyrics but a production that doesn't fit at all, ruining any hopes of me trying to connect with the song overall. These two songs give off no feeling and don't affect me the least bit,making me have to dub them as fillers--which is inexcusable seeing that they're being used as the opening tracks.
But just like life after high school, Groove In Downtown does get better, improving immensely in the second half of the album, actually making up for the 3 songs. You have the nice tracks that don't exactly blow your mind but are easy to sit back and enjoy. Songs like Livin Da Life, Black Roster, and Substitute Love, that leave a pleasant impression that is strong, but just not strong enough to manage to stick with you once the next few songs start playing.
What made this album as great as it is is definitely the fact that though it does have it's downs, literally half of the songs on the album standout, great enough to be released as a single. From the eerie track "Choice" that opens the album, a Synthpop song about walking down the paths of fame with a hook sung in an almost monk-like unison, to the closing track Can I Exist? who's lyrics criticize humanity's dependency on the media and even religion, the riff of the bass giving it a catchy kick. You stumble upon the track Without a Cause not expecting much just to realize that Kidd Amaze protects, if only for the minute, any future mainstream rappers have in experimental music. Then Liyah comes back in, still not rapping but that's OK, Free Spirit and it's soulful instrumentation soon enough transformed into a song perfect for not only the radios but also any club with the least bit of sense. Can anybody say single? Oh right, I just did. Not to forget After Party with Lilly Stuart, Groove In Downtown finally managing to make a song for easy listening that wasn't settling for being an album filler with it's dismissive lyrics about a party animal who reluctantly realizes that the party is over.
So in the end, the album played with my emotions, just not completely in the way it should have. Though in the beginning I was vexed by all the missed opportunities, the album quickly spiraled into an extraordinary album, earning itself a precarious 8/10. Groove In Downtown and the number one's it has received are debatable but clearly deserved. If you haven't gotten the chance to, you might want to stop being stupid and buy it already. At least now you know which tracks to skip.
12/15
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