88-Keys - The Death of Adam [album]

Decon Records

November 16, 2008, 09:36 PM

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If first impressions are something to go on with 88-Keys’ The Death of Adam, the album cover foretells I’m in for a treat. And considering the Executive Producer is Kanye West, I go in with high hopes. It is either going to be genius or pathetic…

My hopes dissipate as soon as opening track “Morning Wood” comes in with lyrics “my love down below/start off on the right foot/as she takes care of the morning wood”. As far as opening tracks go, basically, this one is crap…and I didn’t need that mental picture either.

Second track, “Nice Guys Finish Last” has a better feel to it, more serious and showcases 88-Keys rhyming talent more than the last. This track has a somewhat DMX ‘Up in Here’ vibe to it – making it actually quite listenable.

“The Friends Zone” is a creative song written about how great it is getting stuck in that zone with a friend… “sitting and talking about your ex all night/we can stay up all night listening to your life”. For the most part, this song is light hearted and comical although never quite breaking into the ‘decent’ category.

The collaboration with Kanye West “Stay Up! (Viagra)” is nothing special and, despite me thinking it would stand out obviously thanks to the guest vocals, it mashes in with the rest of this stagnant album thus far.

“The Burning Bush” has a decent beat behind it,which we would expect from the producer turned rapper. Redman tries his best to lift this album out of the weakness on this track, but I take it as a bad sign that I’ve forgotten this song as soon as its finished.

Randomly throughout The Death of Adam we get abused by a lady giving a running commentary of the story behind the album– a la Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool –only this girl is irritating. She is totally redundant as the story behind the album really isn’t that difficult to grasp.

I get the feeling 88-Keys is trying to portray someone much, much cooler and more severe than he actually is. Someone who has let the need to be a big scary rapper ruin his debut solo(ish) album.

88-Keys as a rapper is not much better than mediocre, and this album is full of unwarranted crass and over the top metaphors. In answer to my self-posed ‘genius or pathetic’ option on the outset, I am definitely going to stick with pathetic, and tuck this album right up next to James Blunt and pretend I don’t own it.

http://www.myspace.com/88keys

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