DJ Shadow, Our Pathetic Age, Album Review
DJ Shadow
Our Pathetic Age
Album Review
I became aware of DJ shadow through his collaboration with Run The Jewels on the track "Nobody Speak", from his previous 2016 effort The Mountain Will Fall. While I believe it to be a solid track, the rest of the album sort of fell under the radar.
A full three years later, and we have ourselves the next studio record from this versatile Disc Jockey. However, it may be one of the most unusually compiled albums I've listened to thus far.
To give a little bit of context. This newest record, Our Pathetic Age, is quite the substantial record with a runtime of over 90 minutes. However, it essentially comes as a two-sided project. I was confused to find that the second side had a feature on almost every song, while the starting side had none.
That being said, I foresaw that the first side would be DJ shadow laying down a number of beats without the help of other artists. I think it is very tricky to have lone beats, especially on an album, to make any kind of impact unless they're incredibly atmospheric and colourful in its sound. Unfortunately, I don't feel that DJ shadow follows this all too well.
While there seem to be a clear theme of anti-technology on both sides of the album, it was far trickier to tell from these beats, especially when you consider how heavily electronic the sound is. There tends to be an occasion on this side where the mood does seem to portray a level of distress, but it is still very scarce.
The cons certainly outweigh the pros on this side for me. Many of the beats are either bland or slightly irritating. The fifth track "Juggernaut" especially really feels like this albums lowest point. It almost sounds like the mouldy leftovers of some dubstep beat from 2013. Its a sound that feels like it hasn't aged well, despite being brand new.
In fact, the one diamond in the rough on this side of the album, is the track "My Lonely Room", which does actually tick the boxes of being atmospheric and creating a mood. It almost feels like some kind of Massive Attack types beat, and it's the cream of a very dry crop when it comes to the first side of Our Pathetic Age.
Although, things take a turn for the better on the second side, as the assistance of featured artists, including Nas, Ghostface Killah, De La Soul, Fantastic Negrito and Run the Jewels, seems to push DJ Shadow to lay down a set of far more in-your-face beats.
From the very get go of side 2, it feels very no-holds-barred, with "Drone Warfare" being a fast paced and dramatic number. This side is generally a lot more engaging in its energy, but even some of the more laid back tunes on this side were enjoyable (in particular, the drearily soulful "Dark Side Of The Heart).
The theme of technological warfare becomes far more apparent on this side as well, with the penultimate track "Urgent, Important, please Read" summing the whole thing up quite nicely.
Our Pathetic Age as a whole album gives me a similar set of emotions to the ones I felt towards Flying Lotus' Flamagra. There are dozens of gems on this record, but they've been covered up by a shedload of incomplete sounding numbers for the sake of making the album feel less like a rushed project.
I reckon I will be eternally confused as to why DJ Shadow felt the need to put a bunch of unmemorable beats before what felt like the more enjoyable part of this album by far. When all is said and done, I feel like DJ Shadows honestly needs the assistance of featured artists to really make his tracks feel complete. In-fact, if he got rid of the first side entirely, I reckoned I would've enjoyed this album way more.
The moral of the story is simply that "less is more", and this album is unfortunately an example of how doing the opposite could wind up detracting the experience.
Thank you for reading
Booth Boy
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