by
Plug 1
- Record Label: Duck Down Music
- Release Date: Apr 3, 2012
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Apr 10, 2012The whole of First Serve is greater than the sum of its parts, and the album's crisp pace, infectious energy and playful humor make it an easy listen and a simple pleasure
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MojoApr 20, 2012Unstoppably ace. [May 2012, p.88]
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Apr 4, 2012It's easy to hear that they spent upwards of two years putting this album together, because First Serve is all about the joy of sublime musicianship.
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Apr 2, 2012Though this won't go down as De La Soul's best album, it is highly intelligent, artistic and features razor sharp lyrics making it arguably Posdnuos and Dave's most musically ambitious project yet.
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Apr 2, 2012The album is replete with humor, drama, and a satisfying sense of duality and resolution.
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Apr 3, 2012It's a breezy, fun exercise in role-playing and escapism from casually assured artists in complete control of their craft, and it thoroughly realizes its modest ambition.
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Apr 20, 2012First Serve, the album, is somewhere between the De La producer's fascinating but flawed Psychoanalysis and his entirely purposeful movie-on-wax, A Prince Among Thieves.
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Apr 19, 2012It's Behind the Music, but funnier.
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Apr 5, 2012Don't call it a full-fledged De La Soul record--call it an enjoyable diversion until the full crew come back proper.
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Apr 2, 2012First Serve holds no fear for newcomers, consolidates their legacy, and deserves at least one encore.
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Apr 2, 2012It might not rank alongside De La Soul's watershed moment 3 Feet High and Rising, but it's a welcome return to a time when rap music was fun and bursting at the seams with creative samples and hungry emcees.
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Oct 30, 2012Spanning 16 tracks, the album comes drenched in De La Soul classicism, with beats seemingly culled from Prince Paul's closet collection.
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Apr 11, 2012The listenability of the second-half might leave hip-hop heads indifferent, often feeling just too full of glossy pop, no matter how solid Plug 1 and Plug 2 continue to rap twenty-five years into their career.
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Jun 7, 2012First Serve isn't a disappointing album by any means-that is, unless you make the mistake of expecting a De La Soul-quality LP from something the pair obviously made for fun-but it isn't a very remarkable one, either.
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Q MagazineApr 13, 2012Joyously propulsive... [Yet] there's little deviation from a straightforward palette of sticky basslines and boom-bap rhythms. [May 2012, p.95]
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Apr 2, 2012It's not the greatest story ever told--the depth of insight runs to little more than "Friends--how many have them? How long before they split like atoms?"--but the overall warmth is engaging.
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Apr 2, 2012Consider it a curious concept explored by two-thirds of the group that perhaps shouldn't distract you from revisiting 'The Grind Date'.
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Apr 2, 2012This is not a bad record, just not what the game needed from De La at the moment.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 2
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Mixed: 1 out of 2
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Negative: 0 out of 2
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May 26, 2012
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Apr 3, 2012