Eardrum>The Beautiful Struggle...

The advance version of Talib Kweli's Eardrum, which I'm pretty sure will be the same version released to stores this summer, has been floating around the net for a couple of weeks now. I told myself I wasn't going to listen to it, until it is officially released and I have my own personal copy. But when my big homie R.E. sent a link for the advanced copy, along with Pharoahe Monch's Desire, directly to my email, I just couldn't resist the urge. I was highly disappointed with Kweli's last official offering, although it did have a few shining moments (i.e.., Black Girl Pain, Never Been in Love). So I was anticipating Kweli would do something to regain my interest and seek redemption for that lackluster performance known as The Beautiful Struggle. The glaring weakness of The Beautiful Struggle was the lack of cohesiveness. The poor beat selection ruined the consistency of the record and at several points the flimsy production eclipsed the lyricism that Kweli has branded as his selling point. After the prompt sale of my copy of The Beautiful Struggle to my local record shop (all with some other worthless cds) for gas money, Kweli has since released two buzzworthy mixtapes. I spoke about Kweli's potential in an earlier post and stated that if these mixtapes were any indication of what's to come, then Eardrum would be a beast. And since I have an uncanny ability to foresee the future, my suspicions were totally correct. Eardrum is a beast. Eardrum is a success largely thanks to the production, which is obviously much better than TBS. But it is not only the production where Kweli scores. Ironically, the content on this record would suggest that it would be more aptly titled The Beautiful Struggle. I'm not a big fan of track by track reviews, and in this case there is no standout track (which isn't a bad thing), so I'll just say listen to every track. But the way Kweli speaks about survival on "Eat to Live" or the contradictions of modern day religion on "Hell" is definitely noteworthy. On every track Kweli speaks with more passion and urgency, a trait that was obviously missing from TBS. Noticeably absent from this "advanced" copy is Mos Def. Now I've heard that there is also a track by Dilla that is supposed to be included on the album, so maybe this "advanced" copy is limited and there is still hope for a BlackStar reunion. With or without Mos Def, Eardrum is easily Kweli's best effort to date and I will be buying the hard copy and this time it won't be sold for a gallon of gas.