If it weren't for the promise to release an additional nine records this year, Murs' first 2010 offering, ForNever, might look like a foreboding back-to-the-drawing-board exercise. After his lukewarm major-label bid Murs for President in 2008, it makes a lot of sense to see the diehard Californian calling on an old friend to help get him back into a headspace that produced some of the rapper's strongest records to date. 9th Wonder-- a producer's gold standard for understated, laid-back cool-- is back for a fourth time helming the entirety of a Murs project.
Unlike the pair's previous efforts, ForNever feels less like a proper album than a collaborative airing of ideas, as both producer and MC breeze through beats and song concepts with a laid-back, Cali-minded approach. Unsurprisingly, ForNever is very much a California affair, with nearly every guest artist hailing from the Golden State (including album bookending features from Kurupt, far less dynamic here than he appeared on last year's collaboration with DJ Quik). From smoking kush on your momma's porch, hitting the 7-Eleven for chips and a Sprite, trying to convince your girl to wait until halftime to argue and getting in over your head with a porn star, each one of these little vignettes has a certain day-in-the-life appeal that work just fine as individual concepts. String them together and you might as well be listening to a treatment for the next Friday installment. Succeeding at their most humorous (including "Let Me Talk", which features some hilarious insight from the pimp-wise Suga Free), most of the songs are toss-offs, but it's plenty of fun to be along for the ride as long as some restraint is issued. Without it, ForNever alternately struggles to keep its head above water with washed-out cautionary tales ("The Problem Is...") or slums it in the shallows with mildly tawdry goofs ("Asian Girl").
If Murs weren't keeping so busy (with everything from comic books to a collaboration with members of Bad Brains in the pipeline), ForNever could feel slight. But even ignoring those greater ambitions, it's just good to find him in encouraging company that, above all else, at least has the rapper feeling comfortable again-- a crucial look for a guy like Murs. And even if these ideas haven't been given much time to fully form, it's hard to feel totally cheated: ForNever is simple fun, and fun while it lasts. As Murs asks on the opening title track, "We do it for love, what the fuck you makin' music for?" It's further proof that a lot of good can come from simply making sure your heart is in the right place.
