From the off, this is heavier and darker than the (admittedly little) hip-hop I've heard to date; almost a cross, at times, between metal and hip-hop. Very powerful certainly, quite dystopian in its way. Still has those staggered lines I hate, where the music seems to break up, and annoying jingles or something, but I feel (and I'm almost certainly completely wrong here) that this might be how Public Enemy sound? Meh, who knows, but it's good stuff. Some really good melodies, and, although as usual I don't tend to be able to make out much in the way of lyrics (or maybe I'm just not that bothered) it does all seem to be pretty dark material. Some great drumming on it, and I don't say that too often.
Annoying that it's not on Spotify so I had to YouTube it. There are some low points: "Drive" features that annoying squeaky voice that, for some reason, a lot of hip-hop artists seem to use, though the ending is quite funny. "Dear Sirs" is a little too angry for my tastes, gets pretty frenetic with some fine guitar though and "Run the Numbers" soon gets things back on a decent track. It seems just to maintain the high quality from here, and finishes really strongly with a bunch of great tracks - "The Overly Dramatic Truth", "Flyentology", "The League of Extraordinary Nobodies" and the powerful closer, "Poisenville Kids No Wins/Reprise (This Must Be Our Time)". Stellar stuff. A solid 9/10.
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