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- Summary: The soul singer returns with his first release on indie label Plug Research after Interscope Records shelved what would have been his second album, Love for Sale, in 2006.
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- Record Label: Plug Research
- Genre(s): R&B, Soul, Pop/Rock, Contemporary R&B
- More Details and Credits »
Top Track
| All Matter | |
|---|---|
| We're all the same And all so very different Divine by design It all intertwines Ain't nothin' new But it's always changin' Movin' still waters Soft... | See the rest of the song lyrics |
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 9
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Mixed: 0 out of 9
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Negative: 0 out of 9
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This is one heavy, messy, dynamite album--one that could take a decade to be fully processed.
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Ultimately, Airtight's Revenge joins Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun, Van Hunt's Popular, Meshell Ndegeocello's Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, Rahsaan Patterson's Wines & Spirits, Joi's Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome, and Sy Smith's Conflict as a generation-defining masterwork of unflinching vision that captures the artist at the very moment in time that it is released.
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Bilal and McKie place emphasis on the craft of each song and the arrangement of each instrument. Bilal's voice is treated as one of these parts, so there is a flat quality to the sound. This may frustrate fans of Bilal's voice or those expecting a conventional star-centric album that places the spotlight on a voice or an instrument. Instead, Bilal's feelings are the centerpiece here. That alone makes Airtight's Revenge a welcome return for a needed voice.
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Despite not being as mesmerizingly immense as some of his earlier output, the record is still a far-out journey of dramatics ("Restart" and "Levels"), hooky winners ("Robots" and "Think It Over") and real-world lament ("Flying" and "Think It Over"). In short, the wait paid off.
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Jan 11, 2011It's a complex listen that strays from the tropes of standard R&B.
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Dec 21, 2010Airtight's Revenge has its soul affectations, but even standard fare like "Little One" bears Bilal's impressively reedy, insistent voice. He sounds like a man unburdening himself.
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Airtight's Revenge sounds like he had a lot of **** he needed to work through, but from great talent, and great catharsis, has come great art. It's hard to imagine that this will break through to any major audience, since it's even less accessible than the rejected Love for Sale, but it seriously deserves it.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 2
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Mixed: 0 out of 2
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Negative: 0 out of 2
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May 16, 2019
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Jul 1, 2019
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