Lupe Fiasco says he hates the way Lasers was made.
And it shows.
Around five or six songs through the album, it becomes apparent that Atlantic Records has its fingerprints all over the record, creating a electropoppy motif that is an awkward and uncomfortable fit at best – and outright terrible at worst. “Out of My Head”, “Break The Chain”, and “I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now” – in particular – stand out for this reason; they all sound like they belong on, say, a Black Eyed Peas or Drake album, rather than with a conscious lyricist like Lupe. This is perhaps the inherent irony of the record overall – even as Matthew Mahaffey sings about “number one songs spinnin’ all day long” on “State Run Radio”, he ends up [unwittingly? intentionally?] describing the sound of Lasers as a whole.
That is not to say that there aren’t moments where Lupe makes the sound work for him – “The Show Goes On” stands as a notable example of this, channeling an almost infectious positivity over a sample of Modest Mouse’s “Float On” – but these moments are quite rare on this 13 track effort.
For the fans of his more lyrical and conscious work, that is still here too…barely. Still, few in number as these songs are, they actually end up being the standouts on an otherwise forgettable album. “Words I Never Said” is the type of uncomfortably true and thought provoking social critique that Lupe is known for, where he takes aim at [among other things] the broken financial system and the arguably more broken political process. But the real star of the album is the Wizzo Buchannan produced “All Black Everything”, a track that exudes dreaminess and fantasy – which fits in perfectly with the theme of the lyrics.
Backed by classic violins, Lupe imagines a world where “racism has no context//hip-hop has no section called conscious”, where there “were no slaves in our history, were no slave ships, were no misery”, where “Malcolm Little dies an old man//Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him”. But most charming about the track is his sheepish and honest admission to end the song: “Uh, and I know it’s just a fantasy// I cordially invite you to ask why can’t it be// Now we can do nothing bout the past// But we can do something about the future that we have”, both a recognition of his impossible dream and a realization of its eventual possibility.
Over the last few years, many people have complained of a “dumbing down” of Lupe’s lyrical ability – a complaint not completely without merit – and while that may be true to an extent, it’s not as if he’s now spitting nonsense. The album still feels like Lupe at points…but not enough. Lasers just feels like the kind of record made because somebody held a gun to his head – an unhappy and erratic marriage of sound and lyrics, if you will.
And after waiting three long years for his follow up to The Cool, I really want to like it. But I really can’t – no, I really can’t.
Final Score – 3.5/5 stars
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