Customer Reviews

Since We Last Spoke

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

RJD2 makes his triumphant return to your waiting headphones with his sophomore disc, and breaks his own mold. The first thing you may notice on this album is the lack of guest MC's; RJ lets his productions shine in far more diverse ways without being limited to baselines and snares. The second thing you may notice is the variety of genres he bends throughout this 12 track adventure. In addition to the usual soul and blues influence that crosses over RJ's luscious intrumental landscapes, he moves into more rock and new age environments. However, don't let that fool you. Each song evolves slowly, so that as soon as you think you understand the style he's trying for he's turned the track into something different.

I honestly think Since We Last Spoke is even better than Deadringer for what it is. There is no filler here, only a generous helping of what loyal listeners and the uninitiated will love. Some people compare RJD2 to DJ Shadow, and with good reason since both artists are able to compose such soulful and diverse music through hip-hop, but the same comparison always puts RJ as the student and Shadow as the teacher. I've got news though; RJ is on his own learning curve and his evolution is going to be just as exciting to follow. Get this album, you will not be disappointed.

That's right -- musical masterpiece. RJD2 comes with a album that transcends funk.

This album uses synths, organs, electric guitars, trumpets, the piano, etc. With soft elegant vocals (both male and female) throughout the album.

I bought the album already thinking that I might not like it due to others' escription of it, but I was wrong. It is a compelling smooth groove based album.

It is not a beats album made to be MC'ed over.
This is not an album that you blast out of your car. It is a album that you listen to.

What happens when you mix a bit of Gorillaz-type rock, with some Groove Armada/Basement Jaxx beats, throw in a tad of DJ Shadow spirits and spice things up with Neptures-level production? Sounds like a pastiche? Well, with a sound that mixes all the feels just described, applied to some carefully chosen samples, RJD2 has come up with the most fascinating eclectic album in a long time!

This has been my first exposure to his music (and certainly not the last one, after what I've heard). From the riffs in the opening title track, you realize you are not in front of a regular production. "Exotic Talk" starts out like a song by Gorillaz and takes on a life of its own with some grandieuse guitar and keys work. "1976" is one of the funkiest tracks on the album, with some contagious percussion and horns that will get you grooving. "Ringer Finger" toys with samples from a bossanova piece, distorting it to the point of making it tough to recognize. "Making Days Longer" is arguably the weakest piece in the album, but even so, it does not leave you unsatisfied.

When you feel the album can't get any better, the best is yet to come. "Someone's Second Kiss" (very reminiscent of DJ Shadow), "To All of You" (a fairly straight up R&B-based track), "Clean Living" (a very Groove Armada-like track), "Iced Lighting" and "Through the Walls" (the two most memorable moments in the album) are each incredible works. "One Day" takes it all back home with a sound that reminds of the Midas touch of the Neptunes (but without them present to work their magic).

In sum, with this third release, RJD2 has established himself as an act to keep our eyes on. Labeled by some as instrumental hip-hop (a term that sounds too limiting to me, to describe such a wide effort), this is, by far, one of the best albums released in 2004.

Deadringer was an incredible album - a flurry of catchy hip-hop beats, electronic pulses and even some decent guest artists. Most of Rjd2's fans doubted his ability to come up with anything better - or at least more creative.

And then he came out with Since We Last Spoke. If Deadringer was a fresh, blue flame from a lit match, Since We Last Spoke is nothing short of a bonfire - a ferocious, in-your-face mass of energy that encompasses almost every electronic style in one unique style of its own. This isn't an album of beats that you can rap to, but rather one of songs that you can listen to.

When you first listen to Since We Last Spoke, you may feel like you're being thrown off a cliff - the sound screams out of speakers like a tiger shooting out of its gnawed cage. Take the title track, for example: it opens the album with sharp electronic blasts, and procedes with an array of ferocious electronic sounds that introduce the theme, which will keep you bobbing your head up and down for hours.

Songs like "Through the Walls" prove that Rjd2 can even do rock; Furthermore, he can do it a thousand times better than the generic snot-rockers in MTV's heavy rotation.

The album does have its low points ("Iced Lightning" and "Clean Living", in my opinion), but they don't come without the creativity that Rjd2 shows on the rest of the album. In other words, even his worst material is far more original that the majority of music on today's market. Besides, he makes up for the low points with "One Day" - a psychadelic hip-hop/electronic/rock finale that takes the Deadringer style and adds an endless amount of flavor, closing out the album with an exclamation point, as well as perhaps providing insight into the next Rjd2 (or Soul Position) album.

Like it or hate it, any listener will have to admit that the new Rjd2 album is unlike anything else mainstream; If Since We Last Spoke isn't taking music in the right direction, nothing is.

When I first read the title of RJ's latest album I was reminded of the Avalanches debut "Since I Left You". I had no idea that the music itself would be so similar.

There should be no duplicity in the fact that "Since We Last Spoke" is far from the sort of hip hop most have come to expect from RJD2 and Def Jux. That being said, I still cannot say this is a bad album. It is fantastic record to simply put on your headphones and get lost in, like a Massive Attack record for example. Far from being "elevator music", it is a liquid soundscape that proves hip-hop DJs can provide more than loop a simple "boom-bap" of a beat.

I would be a fool to say that RJ is the first to try and demonstrate the potential of a hip-hop DJ, however, RJ has succeeded in this endeavour where others (like Prefuse 73) have failed.

Dead Ringer was better (slightly) but definitely a four-star effort.

Not since 'Endtroducing' or 'Pre-emptive Strike' has a sample-based instrumental album been so appealing to the ear drum. Thick dense layers of misc. samples, analog synth, and Rj's signature drum samples overwhelm the senses. Luckily he worked out all his hip-hop trax on 8 million stories, and in return he blesses us with 46 minutes of pure unadulterated instrumental bliss. I have no idea how anyone could not enjoy this more then Deadringer. Rjd2's sound this time round is much more mature, more refined have you. After about 20 listens I have to say I find it more satisfying then 'The Private Press'. Looks like Shadow will playing catch up on his next release if he is to regain the title of 'King of the MPC'.

rjd2 absolutely blows any concept of a hip-hop instrumental effort out of this universe. in his interviews, he says he wasn't trying to make a Dead Ringer follow-up, he was out to make quality music, not necessarily a hip-hop cd. the end result: music that's so originally addictive, i actually feel guilty putting it back in my cd case! favorite tracks are '1976', 'Making Days Longer', and 'Through The Walls' (surprisingly, the 3 least hip-hop influenced tracks on the album!). i bought this album solely because of DR and at first, i genuinely thought i threw away $15.

i can't count how many reviews incorporate the phrase 'you have to repeatedly listen to this album' or 'it takes a while to realize what he's saying'. luckily, rj says barely anything, his beats speak for themselves: LOUDLY. pick this one up, you won't regret it. and if you don't like it, kick the guy at best buy in the balls.

I have been a little surprised at the people who didn't think this album was very good...

Indications of where RJD2 goes on Since We Last Spoke can be heard on his previous releases; it's not really as big a change as some would have you believe. He maintains a steady evolution from one release to the next, so you have to expect some growth and change in his sound with each new album. This isn't purely a hip-hop record, so purists will probably be disappointed. By expecting the same thing out of an artist or genre from year to year, purists are sometimes not inclined to appreciate change when it occurs. I.e., if you're looking for a record to spit rhymes over, this isn't it. This is listening music, and goes in the same individualistic and personal directions that any introspective artist does at times.

The album isn't very long, but it is long enough. A lot of good records would be great if a track or two had been cut, but this record is short enough to prevent you from thinking about that. You do, however, get the feeling that another track or two might have been a bit much.

Some tracks really seem a lot denser and more skillfully arranged than on previous albums. It's a little progressive, and not quite as accessible as earlier work, but not too much so. Still, I think this is what accounts for some of the negative reaction it has received...Since We Last Spoke does require attention and repeated listens in order to fully appreciate it, and while I don't think it is great I do think it is very good, thus four stars.

Rjd2 is nice, but a number of his songs tend to follow a very similar run down chord progression, and there's the feeling that some of the songs didn't sound all that different in their original non-sampled form, less so on this album, more so on the previous. Though, they're good songs. If i were to rate them on their production/sampling originality, i'd have to go 3 stars, but i'm going to rate them on their good songness factor.

On a side note, at only two places this album finds Rjd2 experimenting with a sort of Cornelius sound, and it doesn't go all that well. But the rest of the album far covers for it in to making it appear charming, rather than not.

This CD hasn't left my CD player since I bought it a week or so ago. It is so, so good. (what else can I say?) The variety and mixture of styles (i.e. funky bubbling basslines with introspective and soulful vocals, indie rock/hip hop stylings, etc.) is so compelling to me that I can't stop listening to it. I can't imagine another album will come out this year, or the next, that is as bangin' as this one. Every song is greatness - I can truely listen to this CD from start to finish, which is extremely rare for me. And it seems like the intire human emotional spectrum is spoken for on this CD - there's a song for every mood. While Dead Ringer took a while to grow on me, this CD grabbed me right from the very beginning nad hasn't let go. And to think that I held off buying this CD because of all the negative reviews!! Shame on me. Where do the nay-sayers come from?? Not here...RJD2 is my musical hero!