| So it's finally come to pass, the tenth and (purportedly) final chapter in the ongoing surrealist saga that is cLOUDDEAD. Perhaps Doseone, why?, and odd nosdam have tired of the international scrutiny, of being the "saving grace" of the 21st-century hip-hop or the far more mundane "next big thing." So they're nipping it in the bud, putting the whole thing to bed before the outrageous strain of being the world's foremost purveyors of gaseous, loop-heavy psychedelia tears them apart at the seams. As parting shots go, Ten lies somewhere between Let It Be and the final episode of M*A*S*H* - strident and sophisticated, yet possessed of the slightest tinge of mawkish sentimentality. The three have seamlessly fused emotional instability with a flawless, album-centered cohesion that's completely out of sync with just about everything else in their warbling, often-brilliant canon. Then again, this is their first, and ironically, last, proper full-length effort. The self-conscious stream-of-consciousness prattle of "Rhymer's Only Room" bleeds into the skulking paranoia of retort to the events of 9/11, and the willowy "Physics of a Unicycle" is full of blossoming bucolic beauty conjured via glacial synth flourishes and whisper-to-speak rhymes. nosdam's production vacillates between wispy melancholia and swampy, lead-heavy grooves that send the album grinding to a screeching halt. So that's it then, game over. Do yourself a favor and take one last long, deep hit off cLOUDDEAD's post-millennial pipe dream. - Grooves |
1XLP/Out Of Print