At only 33 minutes, this flies by. It's half an hour of no-nonsense rhymes with hard east coast beats. One of my biggest problems though is Meth's almost hashtag/punchline style of rapping.
For example, here is some of 'Switch Sides' -
"Don't get yourself popped tryna trigger me
Bop you in your head, this where the buck stop; literally
Buck shots, what the blood clot? Watch the picking knee
If he flee, stop him with a leg shot, pick a knee
Chest shot to make your chess move, Bobby Fisher me
Get assassinated, tryna run? Bobby Kennedy
Keep that same energy, poison in my pen
What's the penalty? My life behind these bars, ain't no clemency"
I've always rated Method Man extremely highly, and this isn't a criticism I remember having about him before, but the style gets annoying here. Another example is when one of the featuring artists raps "aqua" and then says "water" afterwards... It's an easy listen given the short runtime, short track lengths, and the consistent quality of the tracks, but there isn't much if anything here to go back to.
Beats: ★★★
Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆
Hooks: ★★★
Best Tracks: Stop Crying, Butterfly Effect, Live From the Meth Lab, Switch Sides, Find God
For all of the garbage sitcoms that run for years and years it amazes me that this only lasted 13 episodes. The four main characters, who carpool to work each day, have great chemistry, each with very different lives with their own unique set of problems and personalities. Laird, played by Jerry O'Connell, is the pick of them as a shallow, insecure, womanising, dentist. The secondary characters, like the eccentric Marmaduke, (one of the character's sons), are also a laugh and others play their role well. There were people involved in the show with links to Arrested Development and it does share some of that quirky and unique humour. Thankfully as well, there is no laugh track. I put one person onto this show and they 'binged' it all one episode after the other.
Case has said he prefers this album (with the next 'Open Letter' being his favourite) as he had more creative control over it, but I prefer his debut. There aren't the highlights here that his others have.
Best Tracks: Happily Ever After, Faded Pictures, Another Minute
These were the lead up songs to what was going to be a solo album from Treach called 'O.G.ology', but unfortunately it never happened. Both songs here are hard gritty east coast rap.
Chapter 1-7ish is good but then it gets fairly stupid (if it wasn't already) and I hate the voice Kells puts on for Bridget. A good original idea though and I hear there are many more planned. Hopefully it will be based on something else and will have a different tune. Who else would have done this though other than Kells?