Stephen's got music -- Lupe Fiasco's album is Lasers (also, of course, at Amazon and on vinyl), and apparently we'll be hearing this tonight:
I found lots of reviews & such, many somewhat less than ebulliant. For example:
One of the few things more depressing than actually listening to Lupe Fiasco's new album, Lasers, is imagining the monumentally emasculating studio sessions it took to make it...
And:
The story of the three-years-in-waiting "Lasers" - its multiple delays, its tormented creator, its eventual crowd-sourced release - has consumed everything around it. For Lupe Fiasco, the technically gifted but preachy Chicago MC, this album is much more about the controversy and less about the music. That's lucky for him, because "Lasers" is mealy-mouthed, disharmonious and forgettable - the embodiment of corporate desire and artistic aspiration colliding messily.
In the three years since Fiasco (born Wasalu Jaco) released his second album, "The Cool," he's recorded many songs. But according to Fiasco, the 12 that made the cut for "Lasers" were assembled by his record label, Atlantic (from whom he has asked for his release), and were often recorded without enthusiasm. It shows...
But it does have its fans:
...The effort the world finally gets its hands on is one where an artist is clearly inspired for action in some sections and being dragged along by his label in others. When crafting of his own volition, however, Fiasco stands tall as an counter-revolutionary leader for the burned out and the damned...
In an interview with Complex, Fiasco himself said he was essentially forced by Atlantic to record at least two songs: “The Show Goes On” and “Never Forget You”. Undoubtedly spurned on Atlantic’s presence, the rest of the record paints a portrait of a very bitter Lupe Fiasco, with his resentment manifesting in a few ways.On one end of the spectrum, there’s “I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now”. The electro-esque beat would be at home at any disco in any part of the world, but the lyrics about forgetting life and one’s responsibilities are some very subtle jabs at the uncaring and uninformed nature of many in the rap/pop world and fans of each genre, many of whom will lose the the message in the very vibrant energy of the track. There’s also more explicit messaging. “State Run Radio” takes a shred of that Clash-esque, reggae-infused punk and sings the ails of the modern radio industry and how everything good seems to be choked under the surface by high-priced garbage. Fiasco’s quite skilled at making catchy what is inherently a message many don’t want to hear. He’s at his most blatant, though, when he mixes his unique voice for the truth with emotional sentiments...
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