It burrows deeper into the maniacally mutated Americana genre the band created with the release of “Good News.” There are gritty country choruses, undulating prog-influenced guitar solos, New Orleans brass, and layers of reverb and distorted instrumentals. Yet, it’s still a surprisingly cohesive and well-structured album. The EP “No One’s First, and You’re Next” is culled primarily from outtakes from the band’s last two full-length releases, 2007’s “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank” and 2004’s “Good News for People Who Love Bad News,” with the addition of two new tracks. Modest Mouse, “No One’s First, and You’re Next” (Epic) The eight songs on Modest Mouse’s first release in two years are not, unfortunately, groundbreaking new material. Flash, who produced the album’s climactic centerpiece, “Life in Marvelous Times,” which finds a measure of solace amid the record’s bleak pastiche of drug addictions, pandemic flu and violence. Joining Madlib on the production side of the album are the Neptunes, Oh No, the late J. “The focus gettin’ clear and the light turn sharp/And the eyes go teary, the mind grow weary.” Take “Auditorium”: “You feel it in the streets, people breathe without hope/ They goin’ through the motion, they dimmin down they focus,” Mos Def intones over a Madlib beat. Thematically, the album’s touchstone is hope and the African-American community’s struggle to find it. Whilst recent albums ‘The New Danger’ (2004) and ‘True Magic’ (2006) were both met with mixed receptions from critics and fans alike, it appears with ‘The Ecstatic’ the 35 year old is back at the top of his lyrical game and is set to reaffirm his position among genre luminaries. Fortunately, “Ecstatic” offers a pleasing mix of both ear and mind candy. Within the hip-hop hierarchy, Mos Def (born Dante Smith) rightly stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of The Roots, De La Soul and Q-Tip. His 1999 breakthrough, “Black on Both Sides,” demonstrated his bona fides in social commentary.
Those fears can be put to rest thanks to “The Ecstatic.” Mos Def’s latest album should remind fans of the Brooklyn native what made them fall in love with him. Mos Def, “The Ecstatic” (Downtown) When the world first heard Mos Def’s 2006 album “True Magic,” an offering executed with such apathy that copies were sold without liner notes or cover art, there was plenty of reason to worry that America’s favorite rapper-actor had lost interest in his recording career. Highlights include a well overdue duet with Talib Kweli on the J Dilla produced ‘History’ and the wonderful ‘Auditorium’ which combines the forces of Mos Def, producer Madlib and legendary emcee Slick Rick to craft quite simply the most inspired Hip-Hop collaboration of the year.Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu Furthermore, collaborations have been noticeably absent from The New Danger and True Magic, yet here they’re back in force. Whilst he will always be pigeon holed as the darling of political rap, he aspires to above all be poetic, meaning he has the freedom to drift between topic and mood, without the album losing focus. As incisive as ever, his lyricism is politically charged yet never preachy. The Ecstatic seems designed to recover old ground, as Mos serves up everything which made his music great. However, where lack lustre production had left previous albums feeling muddled and directionless, attention to detail and a stellar cast of producers have seamlessly integrated a range of genres into one consistent work. The thudding timpani of ‘Quiet Dog Bite Hard’ sounds almost copy and pasted from the rhythmic experiments of his sophomore album The New Danger, and the ironically named ‘Life in Marvellous Times’ would’ve slotted neatly alongside the synth laden beats of 2006’s True Magic. In fact, the album is littered with musical avenues Mos Def has ventured into before and failed to return from.
The effortless synthesis between beat and lyric is hugely reassuring, as if to say ‘This time things will be different’, but as soon as the sheer impact of this track wears off, one has to wonder how different this is to his previous Rock ’n’ Roll failings. With opener ‘Supermagic’ the album begins in a blaze of electric guitar and feverishly delivered rhymes.
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