Customer Reviews

Yes!

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I do not usually write reviews, but DAM! I had to for this one! As a long time K-Os fan I have always looked forward to every release with an equal amount of excitement & curiosity as to what he was going to put out next. For an artist to be as diverse as the multiple forms of music that have obviously influenced them, is a special thing. K-Os is one of those kinds of artists. From the opening track all the way to the final now customary hidden track, he floors you with flat out great music. "Zambony" & "Astronaut" are once again futuristic/retro hip-hop gems, while "Burning Bridges" & "Uptown Girl" hit you with the rock/pop influences that he effortlessly maneuvers to so well. A wonderful extension of hip-hop through the eyes of guitar laced tracks. My personal favorite is the strangely titled "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman", I could care less what the name of this track is, it is absolutely the s***! Bump this one loud because the beat, the rhythmic strut, K-Os flow, even the guest rapper are absolutely killing this track. To keep this short, the rest of the tracks on the album wonderfully display what an artist should always try to do, grow, expand, & challenge themselves. Never forgetting what their fans love about their work, & yet being bold enough to advance their craft & take the chances that allow them the position to truly call what you do art. K-Os, keep doing what you do so well, & to his fans both old & new (even the curious ones), buy the record, because this is definitely one of 2009's finest! Peace!

I'm a huge K-Os fan -- I have all of the man's albums. I was seriously disappointed when I found out I would have to order his new album Yes! online because it wasn't being sold in stores.

K-Os really returns to his old school-style hip-hop roots with this album while experimenting with new sounds that leave him more "current" than his previous albums. His last album Atlantis, though very brilliant, leaned into a lot of classic/retro pop. I loved the album but it definitely didn't add him any credits as an M.C. but this time he returned showing all of his influences in previous albums with respect to a mature and a very "today" sound.

If I have to knock him one star for ANYTHING it would be he still delves more than necessary into retro sounds -- I think for K-Os to really showcase his talent and remain relevant he needs to be more cutting edge and lead trends rather than stay on the cusps of trends in hip-hop music. However, I am very pleased to see he has found himself and exudes confidence -- the type of confidence that only a man who is comfortable in his skin can convey.

K-os created an absolute masterpiece with Joyful Rebellion, but his follow-up, Atlantis, was lacking in comparison. After an album where almost every track could have been a hit single but also contributed to a CD more than the sum of its parts, the handful of great songs and 60% filler on Atlantis was disappointing.

I am happy to report that his new album Yes!, while not quite hitting the heights of Joyful Rebellion, does get 95% of the way there. This is another great album from K-os and I can heartily recommend it.

For the uninitiated, K-os blends numerous musical styles, quite often in the same song. He raps and sings equally well, and does whichever combination is most appropriate for the song. He skips genres and styles like Beck in the late 90's, and his raps will appeal to fans of A Tribe Called Quest. Musically, he is organic enough for the average Mojo reader, often playing an acoustic guitar, and while he does include some cheeky samples, most songs are performed by a band.

He supported The Roots on tour and it's easy to see why... in fact if the early, not-so-hard Roots had listened to more punk rock, they might have sounded like K-os. He's a multi-platinum artist in Canada, but criminally underrated in the US, to the point that the CD has to be imported if you won't settle for MP3 files.

On to the music: mainly hip hop with some reggae, acoustic rock and a little dance thrown in, but most definitely identifiable as hip hop. The verses are generally rapped and the choruses are made up of very catchy lyrics, generally sung and usually very good for singing along to. K-os has a pop musician's ear for catchy choruses, and I found myself joining in with most of them. He's been very cheeky with the samples - the bass line from Nirvana's cover of Love Buzz and the hook from the theme to The OC are the most obvious, yet they never jar like they would when used by some lesser artists.

After two months of regular listening in the car and on the iPod, I am only now skipping two tracks on the whole album. There are very few albums in the last twelve months which hold up like this. If you enjoy music and are open-minded, this is one of the best albums of 2009.

K-os named his new album 'Yes!' to reflect the positive and unrestrained approach from which he created the music.

A major strength of k-os is his ability to use a genre within his hip hop, and -- while definitely doing hip hop -- making the borrowed genre come alive in its own identity. He does it extensively with indie rock on this album. He does it especially effectively with reggae(ton), including an excellent sequence where he raps against what seems to be but isn't his own echo. There are also some great doo-wop elements, which are not especially subtle except that most listeners will be unfamiliar with the genre. (Also I have to suggest listeners look to "Valhalla", my favorite track from his last album, for a sublime use of the spiritual form as a chorus against rapped verses.)

This is "fusion" in the best sense. More than that, it is the "recontextualization" (c.f. "found art") sophisticates like to talk about, except that unlike an old sneaker put on display in a museum, what k-os does is worth paying attention to. Certainly it is metaphorical, not documentarian, that k-os is pictured on the album cover holding a sampler with his face obscured. The ability of hip hop to incorporate any other genre should, in principle, render hip hop the universal musical form, supremely flexible and given to profound novelty. Reflect on how limited so much of hip hop actually is, and you will see that k-os' disappointment in hip hop is deeper than its fixation on money. Or perhaps its fixation on money, so superficial, has rather deep consequences.

One of the k-os' funny characteristics reappears in this album: while he attacks the pompousness of other rappers, he maintains a way-large ego himself. For example, he begins a track with Neil Armstrong's famous transmission of "one small step for [a] man," cutting it off by sighing melodramatically before launching into a song.

K-os has made impressive strides in becoming a better singer; his rapping, always good enough, does not show the improvement of his singing. And, compared to previous work the instrumentation in this album really is novel. This brings us to a potential "problem" with the new album. The beats of several songs are so intricate they border on sounding busy instead of musical. Personally, I like intricacy, so it doesn't bother me -- but if you tend toward stripped-down beats leaving the rap front and center on a track, you might be put off.

Then there is k-os' ambition for this album -- he wanted it to be enjoyable, easy, free of the baggage of his prior work. K-os' baggage comes in two main forms: disdain for mainstream hip hop, and philosophical musings. Actually, considering that most of these new songs address these topics, it seems that when k-os lets his mind drift freely he turns right to the weightiest of thoughts. K-os was the guy at the party who would have a few drinks and more, feel the music bumping, and nonetheless find himself lost in serious thought (or conversation..) about the meaning of life when everyone else was busy forgetting all the seriousness of life.

But this tendency of his does not harm the album. K-os giving it free range (and free reign, and free rein) has rendered both his philosophical musing and his commentary on mainstream hip hop more productive, less encumbering -- they are no longer baggage. In the case of his meaning-of-life issues, he puts more emphasis on the fact that some things are, ultimately, unknowable. (This is not entirely new, as listeners might recall from his debut album.) He also allows the instrumentation to more clearly reflect his weighty subject matter, no longer setting metaphysical raps into good-but-conventional beats (...although I should note that the more-apt eerie-echoey-disoriented beats verge on annoyingly repetitious in this album). In the case of his complaints about mainstream hip hop, on this new album k-os employs a bigger arsenal than ever in his fight, including especially satirical mimicry. Thus in both channels k-os succeeds in the artist's mission to show rather than say -- per Archibald MacLeish, to not mean, but be. We're always ourselves, whether guarded or relaxed, but that if we accept our own identities that same self becomes constructive rather than awkward.

I don't know if I like this album more than k-os' others or if I will listen to it more often. There is a solid chance of this album defining k-os within the broader history of music. Moreover I do suspect that this album's sharp, catchy, contemporary productions stand the best-so-far chance of generating big-time popularity for k-os. That is a little ironic though, for the simple reason that on this album those catchy, contemporary-sounding songs are vehicles of irony. "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman" IS catchy. It is TOTALLY a standout. AND its singalong breeziness stands across a fearsome chasm from its story of the loneliness that a person must accept if they want to accept themself. If you recognize both the breeziness and the pain that make up the song, the divide between them appears as well. It is a song of agony. And so it weirds me out to know that people will be bumping it like a party tune.

"I Wish I Knew" is also a song of triumph, anthemic of the album. Creativity means making something good from the darkness -- a metaphysical metaphor k-os has pursued from the beginning of his artistry. It IS a happy song, even if I hear a dangerous relationship between the happiness and alienation. "I know I'll find a recipe / for me / but I can't really make you love me."

To put it simply, the help of money and better producers continue to aid K-Os in his success. This album is the best composed and produced albums from K-Os but unfortunately not the most fulfilling to listen to. Regardless the album is worth a listen if one had never experienced the hip/hop essence that K-Os brings, and for those familiar you won't be disappointed.

I am a huge K-OS fan and was happy to see that he put out another record. This is definitely a departure from the live band, more granola sounding production of his three previous efforts but its still K-OS. He gives you a taste of all the musical genres as he usually does, my only complaint is that the production of this album distracts and takes away from his talent. He seems over shadowed a bit on this record. I am going to see him live in NYC next week for the first time and hope he plays a little bit of all his records not just this one. All in all if you like him get it, its good quality music.

I have always loved how Kheaven embraces many genres of music on YES he stays true to this. If you like good hip hip or even just music then get it.

This is a very good album. I thought it wouldn't be as good as his last since I play it more times than I do with a lot of my CDs I have and ditial ones too. He rap more on this album than his last one. I hope a lot of you get this one or his other ones also he is very good.

Ok, it's not completely hip hop in form, but it is definitely maintained in essence. It's darker than the last disc, Atlantis..., but it's still probably the most fun hip hop album to come out in some time. The blend of the old school, and the current, enables the listener to recall hip hop's rosier parts of its past. Meanwhile, the "indie rock" portions mashed up against the 808s, give the album a distinct feel, but somehow or another it just makes sense. How many albums do you know of that can put Saukrates, Emily Haines, and Murray Lightburn - on back to back songs - and it sounds cohesive?

It's not an absolutely flawless album, but then again, I don't know if it's about that. I think he just wants you to feel genuinely 'good' when you listen to music. In a time of darkness economically and otherwise, it's a refreshing and rich listen, especially the deluxe edition. Most of the remixes are on par with the originals, i.e. 4 3 2 1 (TheSoundCrate Remix)...nice driving song. Definitely the perfect album for the spring, going forward into the summer time. It's worth your twenty US dollars, and whatever that converts to in anywhere else in the world.

It is a shame that an artist of k-os's caliber goes unheralded in the hip-hop community. His music continues to blow me away for so many reasons - production quality, vocals, lyrics, beats.....his music is incredible! Pick this up right away!