After releasing
The Grind Date in 2004, the venerable hip-hop pioneers
De La Soul were quiet on the album front until 2016's
And the Anonymous Nobody. They were pretty busy otherwise though, working with the
Gorillaz, making mixtapes, touring, and attempting to release their back catalog for free, much to
Warner Bros. dismay.
Dave and
Posdnuos even made an album together, 2012's
De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2 Presents... By 2015, the trio were ready to make another record, this time without record label politics or samples. After a successful Kickstarter campaign raised some funds, they gathered up a group of friends and musicians from their live band, then began recording beats and jams, almost 200 hours' worth. They then took the best bits, constructed a batch of songs, and started working on a guest list. Though
Willie Nelson and
Axl Rose turned them down, old pal
Damon Albarn and an impressive array of people like
Usher,
Jill Scott,
Snoop Dogg,
2Chainz, and
David Byrne did sign on. Working with live musicians and guests inspired the group to take their sound to new places along with their laid-back golden age rap style. "Lord Intended," which features vocals by
Darkness frontman
Justin Hawkins, swerves into hard-rocking, guitar soloing territory, the
Damon Albarn feature "Here in After" is jangling indie rock, and "Unfold" dips into Wild West cowboy balladry. The best of the left-field collabos is the Afrofunk-sampling,
David Byrne-sung "Snoopies," which sounds like a
Talking Heads song and a classic
De La song jammed together. Where the album really shines is when the band loses any experimental pretense and just drops some solid hip-hop. Tracks like "Pain" and "Trainwreck" are funky and loose, "Royalty Capes" is tough and tight, "Whoodeeni" is lots of fun, and "Memory Of..." is a sweet, nostalgic, and sad ballad with classic
Pete Rock production and lovely vocals by
Estelle. In a better world, it would be a radio hit. On these tracks,
Dave and
Pos drop memorable lines and nimbly thread their raps through the live instrumentation like the seasoned pros they are, sounding like they haven't aged much at all since
Three Feet High, though their lyrical concerns are definitely more grown up at this point. ~ Tim Sendra
![The Fog [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0738572130121_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "The Fog [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]")
![California Nights [Bonus Tracks]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0029667071826_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "California Nights [Bonus Tracks]")