Midnight Marauders

Not sure what happened here. Their previous work was so strong and this feels like a significant step backward. The songwriting is lazy, the production is overwrought, and the whole thing feels phoned in. A couple of decent tracks don't save it.

A few good tracks don't save a mostly underwhelming album.

The kind of album where you sit in silence after it ends.

A very cohesive listen. The sequencing is particularly impressive.

I go back and forth on this — some days it's a 4, some days it's a 4.5. The inconsistency in my own feelings about it probably reflects the slight inconsistency of the album itself. But at its best, this is breathtaking.

The first half is near-perfect. Second half is still great but slightly less focused.