Damn you, second CD by a well-known-by-music-geeks artist. You've just reminded me of a simple but harsh truth: those debut CDs that music geeks love so much are often the product of years of music-writing experience, filtered through a trusted collaborator's sense of what is actually worth releasing. Second CDs, unfortunately, often aren't.
The Cold Vein might be almost three years old, but this solo debut doesn't give the impression that Vast has had enough time to completely recharge his batteries. "You ain't nobody, and when I'm done with this rhyme, you'll have no body" might just be a warm-up line from the intro track, but it's a taste of what follows in the Disappointing Lyrics department. There's an awful lot of you-suck-and-I'm-gettin'-with-your-girl generica clogging up the works this time out, and it's not always covered up by the man's better-than-average delivery. The dozen-plus producers that provide beats for the disc's 17 tracks and change manage to camouflage lazy lyrics from time to time, but they make the album feel like a five-thumbed glove just as often. Nasa's wailing and buzzing backdrop to "Candid Cam," coupled with Karniege's presence on the chorus, turns a couple of check-my-kung-fu-and-show-respect verses into a genuine highlight of the disc. MF Doom's saloon pianos and grilled-cheese similes give Vast room to be playful between a pair of darker street stories; unfortunately, they're also surrounded by Sadat X being sexy, an anemic Blueprint contribution, a couple of Madlib beats that never quite connect with the vocals, and some sad attempts at recreating the vulnerability of "The F-Word" over sickly-sweet R&B numbers. And... (!) there's a pointless track-and-a-half continuation of the pissing contest with the Demigodz crew, hooray. It sucked when El-P shoehorned "We're Famous" into the middle of the last Aesop Rock disc; "9 Lashes (When Michael Smacks Lucifer)" and "A.S.C.F.D." continue the humourless groove, making Esoteric's free-download clowning shine that much brighter in the process. As the iTunes Music Store & Co. make the rebirth of a market for singles seem more and more likely, I sort of wish that somebody at Chocolate Industries had thought to put out Look Ma... as a half-dozen good 12"s (or their online equivalent) instead of unloading this mixed-bag of an album on my expectations. Maybe next time?
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