Wu-Tang Shows Promise on New Album

Appropriately, The Wu Tang Clan‘s newest album, Chamber Music, opens with a sample from a kung-fu movie. The over-the-top actor speaks about redemption, which is apt because that is exactly what the Wu-Tang Clan are looking for. No rap group has fallen from so high a grace than the Wu Tang Clan. Their first album, Enter the 36 Chambers has a ubiquitous presence on best albums lists, but every other Wu Tang album has been mediocre at best.

Chamber Music is good though, so good that it gives hope to all the Wu Tang fans who have lived in private disappointment for over ten years. The RZA has finally made something decent that’s not a soundtrack, while Raekwon and the rest of the clan remind the public just how good they can be on tracks such as, “Ill Figures,” the sublimely titled, “Kill too Hard,” and the old-school RZA track, “Nyc Crack”. The Brooklyn-based soul band, The Revelations, were recruited by the RZA to play the arrangements on all the tracks, and the live music keeps the production from flattening. Overall the production is as old school as can be and the musicianship is laid back and riding the off-beat.

The worst parts of Chamber Music are usually whenever Ghostface Killa opens his mouth. It seems like Ghostface is trying to set the record for how many times someone can say “faggot nigga” on an album. The Wu Tang Clan are at their best when they are being the intelligent people they are, so it’s puzzling as to how a moron like Ghostface can make his way into the spotlight for so much of the album. The worst track on the album is the Ghostface cut, “I Wish You Were Here,” which his attempt at a slow jam. “I wish you were here,” is hilarious, it’s full on moaning and memorable lines such as, “I want to get it off like a G Bomb,” or “I get butterflies when we hug and kiss. Do you?”.

Interspersed throughout the album are one minute tracks of spacey beats with the RZA speaking inspired gibberish. These experimental koans actually do a pretty good job of making the compilation seem like a true Wu Tang album.

Even though ODB is dead, Chamber Music gives hope to Wu Tang Clan fans that they might be able to come together again and make the greatest rap album of all time, just so long as Ghostface Killa stays home and keeps his walking helmet on.

Mp3: Kill Too Hard

Mp3: Nyc Crack

Mp3: Ill Figures