On Talib Kweli's most recent studio album, 2004's uneven The Beautiful Struggle, he couldn't leave a bad idea alone. Every concept was weighed on triple beams, each line raked over with a fine-toothed comb, and each beat polished to the point of oblivion. But many of that album's tracks wouldn't have worked if Talib had spent a thousand years on them: The hooks weren't there, the themes felt forced, and the approach was off. He went from being the guy who was about to spark a revolution with Reflection Eternal and Black Star to sounding painfully generic amongst faux-street tracks and empty, cynical idealism.
The good news is that Talib rebounds on Eardrum, continuing a trend he began with Liberation, his net-only collaboration with Madlib. The BK MC here sounds confident and relaxed-- he doesn't try to knock it out of the park with every turn at bat, instead letting the album's themes and motifs slowly unfold over 20 tracks. He's also assembled an all-star cast of producers (Madlib, Kanye, Pete Rock, Just Blaze, Hi-Tek) who manage to make a cohesive album that points toward the gospel, soul, and hip-hop sounds that made the best of Kweli's solo work-- Train of Thought and Quality-- so enjoyable.
After experimenting with a harder persona on Beautiful Struggle, Talib seems to have accepted the fact that he's a nerd. The heartfelt, eager "Eat to Live" and appealing wispy "Country Cousins" recapture the quirky glory of early Reflection tracks, and fans will be pleased to hear there are no missteps such as "Back Off Me", where the conscious MC tried to affect a harder persona. There are also a handful of unapologetically pop songs, ones that are surprisingly good and (unlike Struggle's "I Try") don't merely try to revisit 2002 hit "Get By". Single "Hot Thing", produced by Will.I.Am, comes across like Quincy via Pharrell, while Talib runs down all the little things about the "sunshine of my life" that get him "stiff like a hieroglyph." Yeah, it's corny, but it's also catchy. For the harder "Listen!!!", originally released to moderate success late last year, producer Kwame flips a Fred Williams sample beautifully, mixing it with back-masked voodoo, 808 interruptions, and dramatic string swells.
And while those songs are on opposing ends of hip-hop's stylistic spectrum, most of the production work on Eardrum mixes swooning gospel with carefully crafted r&b drama that nods towards 70s soul mavens Gamble & Huff or the stereo symphonic jazz of David Axelrod. The album's opening track, "Everything Man", has a simulated thunder clap, while Madlib's "Soon the New Day" offers a slinking, twilight soul anchored by a hook from Norah Jones (yes, that Norah Jones).
As with Common's Finding Forever, spirituality is a central theme on Eardrum. This focus, more than the anti-mainstream rap screeds sprinkled here and there, allows Talib to weave personal struggles into a universal narrative. "Give 'Em Hell" is probably the most nuanced and effective example of this, as Talib questions both the rigidity and cultural bias of modern religion. It's heady, abstract stuff, but Talib fills in details with memories of childhood confusion.
There are missteps: Modern hip-hop polemics have fallen out of favor in the light of this decade's faux-populism, and "Hostile Gospel Pt. 1 (Deliver Us)", despite an excellent turn by Just Blaze, is unlikely to convince anyone that we need a revolution with lines like, "I call these rappers baby seals because they club you to death." Another track, meanwhile, features various people remembering when they first heard Talib and is an exercise in self-absorption.
And though Talib switches up his flow (see his double time rap on "Country Cousins") more than ever, he's still prone to rhythmless rambling (see how he ruins Pete Rock's excellent flip of Elton John's "Border Song" on "Holy Moly"). There's also the unforgivable "The Nature", with a thin, noiseome guest spot from Justin Timberlake, but Talib gets more right here than wrong. He's made a nice to return to form, crafting a mature album that nods to his past without being a retread.
