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Timelag-wise, the 1957 concept is as if some '60s songpoet had conceived an album about Armistice Day, influenza, the Palmer raids and Mary Pickford. Only that would have been a milestone and this isn't, which you can blame on heightened aesthetic expectations rather than the potency of this Canadian rapper's literary mojo.
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Yet cartoon and divorced from reality as it is, his vision is so vivid that it never fails to seduce and fill you with the uneasy sense that maybe, just maybe, somewhere his disturbing dimension of bums and misfits really does exist.
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It's consistently great stuff--this is among the best hip-hop albums of the year by my reckoning.
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Younger rap fans may be puzzled by Buck 65's throwback character sketches and references to Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Bettie Page, but those who yearn for a more literate approach will find lots to dig in Situation.
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Buck keeps things relatively stripped down, embroidering vintage-sounding boom-bap beats with just enough detail to keep your ear engaged between his wordy verses, which he values far more than catchy choruses.
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Situation actually represents Terfry at his razor-sharp best; it's a disc that should appeal to any fan of good hip-hop, indie or otherwise.
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His voice scrapes against minor-key tracks full of moody keyboard lines as he raps about a pornography photographer in 'Shutter Buggin',' jazz and poetry in 'Beatific' and a vice-squad cop in 'Spread ’Em.'
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BlenderThe sonics beneath Buck's deadpan rhymes are too often more subdued than the dense collages he started out in the late 90s, but jazz keyboards and conga poly-rhythms keep the backing from sinking into mere soundtrack. [Nov 2007, p.146]
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Buck 65's percussive funk and gruff flow serve language that deserves no less.
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Alternative PressThe minimalist musical compositions on Situation force the listener to focus on Buck 65's idiosyncratic ingenuity. [Dec 2007, p.187]
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Favoring the easy gravity of images and ideas over well-crafted sounds and stories, Situation finally drowns in its nostalgia.
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MojoFar from sounding like the future, however, Situation is valiantly old school in its belief that the best rap is cultural commentary, poetic and from the heart--the modern blues basically. [Nov 2007, p.108]
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Under The RadarHe's still not the smoothest MC in the world, continuing to hurt his flow by cramming too many words into his verses, but his rhymes are sharp and his references prove he did his homeowrk. [Fall 2007, p.87]
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Situation is a cool, collected set of songs from the veteran Canadian rapper, but you shouldn’t be expecting anything revolutionary--at least, not from the music.
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His ambition’s got the better of him this time, though: it’s tough to care about the overarching (and admittedly interesting) theme when the component songs aren’t satisfying themselves.
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Q MagazineSituatiion finds him returning to his roots, growling out stories like a hip-hop Tom Waits within the framework of an album very loosely inspired by momentous events of 1957, most effectively on the sinuous 'Lipstick.' [Dec 2007, p.112]
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UncutBuck 65 returns to abstract hip hop, but injects it with cool, psych jazz and '70s cinematic funk. [Dec 2007, p.86]
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The Wire15 tracks of raspingly dry boilerplate hiphop, whose moods and references are pretty much (all) the Americans ones you'd expect. [Nov 2007, p.51]
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SpinIt's never sonically engaging enough to stand out amid a rack of backpacks. [Dec 2007, p.112]
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The freeform mish-mash of sounds, scratches, samples, styles and lyrical themes is far too much of a mixed bag to have a wide appeal.
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There are isolated moments of beauty--the spare piano loop of 'Ho-Boys,' though nothing new, is evocative and effective--but little sticks in the mind or stimulates the emotions.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 8
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Mixed: 0 out of 8
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Negative: 1 out of 8
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LaceaC.Feb 1, 2008Maturity, that's about it.
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CarlS.Dec 3, 2007
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JohnG.Nov 9, 2007Fantastic lyrics and beats. Old-school in it's rawness. Buck 65 is one of a kind.