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Nov 17, 2011This is a truly throwaway fast food album. You will enjoy it for a while, and in a year, I guarantee that you will not be listening to it, save for a few songs (such as "Legendary" and "Ambition").
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Nov 17, 2011With a tight-knit collection of features and palpable confidence exuded in his lyrics, Ambition is Wale's most cohesive and likewise enthralling project thus far in his brisk career.
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Nov 15, 2011Ambition is just his latest pop grab, and in many respects, it's more realized than his last one.
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Entertainment WeeklyNov 11, 2011While his follow-up's party beats are sturdy, it's frustrating to hear him trade his brainy morality for shoutouts. [11 Nov 2011, p.75]
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Nov 8, 2011It's just not very fun. Wale's conversion to Ross' braggy rap-excess didn't seem like a great idea in theory, and stretched out to an hour his updated, devolved craft starts to wear thin very, very quickly.
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Nov 8, 2011He takes advantage of the do-over, lacing expensive-sounding beats from the likes of Diplo and Lex Luger with dialed-in flows. He's too quick to reach for sexist cliches; cheap shots at groupies and gold diggers undercut moments of real emotion.
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Nov 7, 2011Combined with a good ear for beats, this makes Ambition a strong sophomore release, one that shouldn't disappoint old fans while drawing in new ones.
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Nov 4, 2011Everything is fast-moving, breezily entertaining, and patently ridiculous.
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Nov 4, 2011Ambition leaves listeners to answer the simple question of whether they want an exceptionally unchallenging album to listen to for an hour or not.
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Nov 1, 2011The overall result is an album that's easily enjoyable, but not particularly interesting.
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Nov 1, 2011The sonic mood of Ambition reflects its title and author and proves, on the whole, far warmer than his debut.
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Nov 1, 2011Ambition nods to Ross' cartoon grandiosity in "Miami Nights," where Wale details his collection of luxury goods over a jubilant horn riff. Characteristically, though, the album heads in plenty of other directions as well.
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Oct 31, 2011Ultimately, the witty lyricism of Wale's early material is too few and far between, as this set leans heavily on misogynistic themes and self-centred musings.
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Oct 31, 2011As far as why it all hangs together so well, credit goes to Wale's talent and his strong personality, which here has grown into an interesting combination of Lil Wayne and Plies, with a little 50 Cent smirk and bit of Drake's phrasing thrown in for good measure.
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Oct 31, 2011Lloyd's chorus on "Sabotage" is easily the most immediately engaging portion of the album (it's actually quite a lot better than most of the material on his own overpraised King of Hearts), but the brunt of Ambition is as forgettable as big-budget rap gets.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 22 out of 34
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Mixed: 10 out of 34
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Negative: 2 out of 34
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Nov 7, 2011
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Nov 15, 2011
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Dec 1, 2011