"Light Tunnels" is the best song of Macklemore's career, period. It's the opening track to his new album, This Unruly Mess I've Made, and is an unfortunately deceptive song in that context. By itself, it's a straightforward but powerful narrative about his trip to the 2014 Grammys, his achievement, and then a reflection on what's he's become in the music industry. It's lyrically rushed and stressed - fuck, he forgot his belt at the hotel, his manager is blowing up his phone, and being 20 minutes late to the Grammys probably is a pretty stressful situation. Musically, it's undeniable proof that Ryan Lewis, when working with Mack hand in hand, they can make some incredible stuff. The beat begins with none other than panicked violins, and builds larger and larger over time - the bass line weaves it's way in perfectly with the strings, and the pounding drum and synth lead that start kicking with the second verse are fantastic. But that's not all - Ryan listened to Macklemore's lyrics, and added even more instrumentation on top to add the most delicious icing on the cake. In the second verse, Macklemore's at the Grammys, and as he begins to recount all the celebrities he witnessed - "thinking such-and-such is bold, look at such-and-such's gold / Damn such-and-such in real life, looks really fuckin' old" and "watch celebrities take selfies with celebrities / It feels so make believe" - and to add to the feeling of being in an imaginary wonderland that despite his success, doesn't feel quite real, a gorgeous twinkling piano in the background works like magic. But Macklemore's disdain comes forward fast, after he realizes what this is all about - the lyrics change from "tonight, we toast to our accomplishments" to "they want Brittany Spears to make out with Madonna / They want Kanye to rant and to go on longer, cause that equates to more dollars" the piano gets replaced by those amazing violins right away, pushing his moment of clarity into the limelight.
It's a pretty long track too, clocking in at over six and a half minutes. As it nears it's end, Macklemore revisits the fateful moment where The Heist took victory over good kid, m.A.A.d city at the 56th Grammy awards, and spouts the acceptance speech that he never prepared. And as he thanks his family, his fans, and his friends, Ryan does it again - he adds the finishing touch of beautiful horns, that don't only sound amazing, but celebrate with the duo. Dreams they never even had came true. Last but not least, the song ends with an epic title-drop; "I guess I showed up late, almost got cut off when they closed the gate, just in time / What will I say, time to explain This Unruly Mess I've Made". Now this is the point of the album where things start to become underwhelming. After that unbelievable introduction, there is so much potential that this album had. If every song had had the same amount of time put into the songwriting, This Unruly Mess I've Made could have been the album that turned Macklemore haters on their heads, and showed to the world that the pair are more than just pop rappers, but artists. He could have talked about his isolation in more depth, (he and Ryan holed themselves away in a remote studio for clarity and inspiration, as shown by the album booklet) his fatherhood in more detail (here, the fatherhood song is simply a letter of suggestions on how to live life, rather than reflections on his own life and how his child will effect him, mentally) and the hardships he's endured since The Heist. But nope. What does he rap about? Mopeds, dancing, wanting to eat donuts, and of all fucking things, Brad Pitt. Did I mention his cat is more famous than you ever will be? Because Macklemore does. After 'Light Tunnels' the song quality is miles below the bar he set on the intro track. Most aren't downright terrible, and some are still decent songs, but there's nothing that compares. There are three tiers of songs, which include; 'serious', 'silly', and 'stupid'. Most of the good songs fall under the 'serious' category, for example 'Buckshot' and 'Need To Know'. 'Buckshot' is a passionate ode to street graffiti, and also boom-bap hip-hop, with features from both DJ Premier and the almighty KRS-One. Considering the fact that first BDP album was in 1987, it's awe-inspiring how KRS still sounds hungry and vicious on the microphone in 2016. 'Need To Know' features Chance The Rapper, and his verse is certainly passable, albeit it is a bit toned down - he almost sounds bored. The beat has some nice piano, and Macklemore and Chance definitely sound more lively on the hook of this track than on the verses. The 'silly' songs aren't necessarily bad - silly is just what they were designed to be, not taking themselves too seriously and just having fun with the music. Even though it's blatantly obvious that 'Downtown' was Macklemore's 2015 attempt at Thrift Shop (replacing Thrift Stores with Mopeds) that doesn't take away from the funny lyrics, the insanely addictive beat and the peculiar deliver. But there's a line between silly and stupid, and Mack crosses it more than once. 'Brad Pitt's Cousin' is a horrendous track, and coming in at track 3 after 'Light Tunnels' and 'Downtown' kills the momentum this album had going for it spectacularly. The intro involves us being informed his cat has more followers on Instagram follows than we do, and he then breaks into song about how he's Brad Pitt's ugly cousin. "Bradley - he's cuzzo". Seriously? Then he starts singing about Angelina Jolie, and how she should show him love because they're apparently related through this ridiculous and completely untrue cousin-ship? It's bad. Almost as bad is the song 'Dance Off' with another awful chorus, and Macklemore rapping about how he moves his butt and old men's cocks. Yes, he really does. Anderson .Paak is featured on this song, but it's a phone-in feature to the fullest, with only about 45 seconds of .Paak vocals slapped on to the back end of the track. They could have used his vocals as well as Dre did on Compton, and constructed an R&B-tinged ballad to remember, but they made this. These two tracks are about as bad as the worst songs on The Life Of Pablo, and that's saying something. Everything else I didn't mention doesn't really have much memorability. 'The Train' is perhaps even more forgettable than 'Thin Line' from The Heist, and the instrumental features the most generic pianos and the most generic sung hook. Macklemore is so against doing his own hooks, that the song 'St. Ides', the only song without a feature on the album, doesn't even have a hook - just a short refrain between verses. 'Kevin', 'Bolo Tie' and 'White Privilege II' are some better cuts that hover between the great and the terrible songs, but they're still average at best, with a recycled topic, drab lyrics, and a myriad of four verses that don't connect all to well respectively. I will give it to 'White Privilege II' for being a brave attempt at talking about something most avoid entirely, and also has a decent overall instrumental. The third verse is tactfully self-aware, and at the same time a stab at those ignorant to the never-ending racism crisis. From the perspective of an American mother he says "Even the protest outside, so sad, and so dumb / If a cop pulls you over, it's your fault if you run". Edgy. It is a good song, and at least has some credibility of closing the album on a strong note. It's definitely a better ending than any of the other songs in between track 1 and track 13 would have been. This album could really have been so much better. As for now, The Heist is still the best work as a project Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have put together. If they continue to craft their songs as well as they do on 'Light Tunnels', then they have a chance of making something truly incredible. But if they keep falling back onto the laziness of things like 'Brad Pitt's Cousin' any credibility they have will most likely fade away. 6.0/10 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
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