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Nodima
 Good; recommended for fans.
Digital
[Rating17440880]
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God Loves Ugly (Produced by A.N.T.) [Fat Beats 2002]
1|Onemosphere|2:17 4 - 4.25
2|The Bass and the Movement|4:02 4
3|Give Me|4:00 3.75 - 4
4|F*@k You Lucy|5:31 3.75 - 4
5|Hair|3:21 3 - 3.75
6|Godlovesugly|3:50 3 - 3.5
7|A Song About a Friend|4:26 3.5 - 4
Not a very creative chop, but still one of my favorite A.N.T. beats.
8|Flesh|4:07 2 - 2.5
Which is why he insists on following with one of his worst. This song could be good, but I don't listen to it. Doomtree improved this style immensely.
9|Saves the Day|3:42 3 - 3.5
"They like to hurt my pride while I hurt their nerves."
10|Lovelife|3:33 3
11|Breathing|3:00 3.25 - 4
12|Vampires|4:17 3 - 3.75
13|A Girl Named Hope|2:07 3 - 3.5
14|Godlovesugly Reprise|1:47 2 - 2.75
15|Modern Man's Hustle|3:45 4
16|One of a Kind|3:28 3 - 3.25
17|Blamegame|4:47 3 - 3.25
The last few songs on this album are weird because all of a sudden Slug transforms into a more generic, "whatever happened to the Golden Age?" rapper, and like Lucy Ford heads in a more Def Jux direction to close.
18|Shrapnel|6:53 3.5 - 4
"Shards of pulled cards scattered on the carpet/It's hard to breath 'cause you wear a fitted target"
Overall: 60 - 62.75 3.41/5 67 - 70%: Good; detracting problems; TRY IT
Slug really goes in on this album. This is some of the angriest stuff I've heard from him, usually he sounds like a sort of classic B-level '90s rapper that happens to have a lot of issues. But on this album he sounds like a guy with a lot of issues that gets an opportunity to rap; shades of Eminem? Well, Slug is a lot more grounded and concerned with figuring out and doing things about problems, whereas Eminem mostly likes to rap incredibly about them without solving them, unless that solution is murder. Slug doesn't take the so-called easy way out and tries to relate to everyday people (read: white trash and self-important suburbanites), and usually he does a pretty good job of it. Slug's world view is depressing but it's not outside the realm of reality, so when he's on a really good topic like "Fuck You Lucy" or "A Girl Named Hope" he can really go in on it. But that's not really the Atmosphere I enjoy most. For me, it's stuff like "Hair" that's what makes Sean Daley an enjoyable MC. So it's kind of unfortunate that a lot of the light-hearted detours don't work as well as the depressing stuff, because Slug's humor is pretty good from where I'm sitting. Thankfully that side of Slug has come out more in recent years. But on this album, you'll most likely get tired of him around "Saves the Day" if not earlier, and by the time "Modern Man's Hustle" rolls around you'll probably realize you have no idea what Slug's been on about since then. I mean, I try to pay attention to albums, but I've never enjoyed sitting through the entirety of this thing because it's so long and Slug is so in his lane - a lane I'll get back to in a minute.
On the production tip, A.N.T. isn't any better or worse than he's ever been. My biggest frustration with A.N.T. is that his growth is barely noticeable - if he's grown at all - and for the most part an A.N.T. beat from 2002 will sound like an A.N.T. beat from 2009 unless he's found a good conceptual reason to try something new (see: the pure boom bap of Strictly Leakage). On the one hand, it's easy to applaud him for consistency, especially fans of his sound, but after spending a whole decade with these sorts of beats I'm just tired of it. Really unexplainable bias, at least with Nottz I know that I just think his beats sound weird, but A.N.T.'s stuff is mostly pleasant and reasonably put together. It is just his total package that rarely if ever clicks for me; Slug carries each of these albums on his own merits. Unfortunately, because his focus is so negative to the point that his lyrics contain what I like to call Slugisms (little additional details added to certain lyrics that emphasize Slug's target demographic's depression) that constantly kick me out of the song's vibe for a moment. It's just off-putting to listen to a guy constantly, constantly bitch without letting much of his quite enjoyable personality shine through the mud. I'm not about to tell anyone to get over Atmosphere, but for me they represent a lot of the same qualities as Bright Eyes: pseudo-one man band, intentionally obtuse and dark lyrics, easily accessible yet only slightly rewarding musical backdrops. And of course the same sorts of people generally like both groups, and the same sorts of towns (Minnesota, Omaha, Seattle - the cold and lonely ones) show out for the guy in droves. I'm just unfortunately a little to the left of that demographic, and whether intentional or not you somewhat have to be in Daley's scene - not just his headspace - to fully connect with his music. |
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Kenny__C
[Rating25864594]
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One of my new favorite groups. ANT is great on the boards and Slug is great on the mic. |
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KaRuiz
CD
[Rating24723227]
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The best Atmosphere album, hands down. |
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oranturgy
great
[Rating23510589]
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Something is a little strange about this album...
It seems perfect it seems enjoyable but something is missing for it to be a 4.5 or 5 star
and make it as a classic for me...
There are some really great tracks here like: FUCK U LUCY, HAIR(love it), LOVELIFE, SONG ABOUT A FRIEND and FLESH(i love the change of style in the middle of the album).
I cant exactly put a finger on whats stops me from giving this a 5 star..
maybe the length of it makes the album tiring....
Bottom line: Almost classic |
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J_Kwon
Great
[Rating22674863]
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4/5
Great
Best Tracks:
Godlovesugly
The Bass and the Movement
Saves the Day
Fuck You Lucy
One of a Kind
Onemosphere |
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MaxAlexander
Digital
[Rating22250979]
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Too good for the radio. |
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cptmisson
 MANALI
[Rating21418831]
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F*@k you Lucy, bless you Slug. |
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McC
Fantasia
CD
[Rating20702525]
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The coolest thing about Atmosphere is that Slug isn't really conforming to the hip hop classics and he doesn't really sound like the other rappers of the time around 2002. With the exception of a necessary parallel to Eminem he is almost completely his own musical force. He didn't reinvent anything really, just marched to his own beat and rapped in a way that convinced his audience that he was saying what he was really thinking. You can't help but feel there really wasn't a whole lot of editing going on here, this seems pretty pure.
Those are the good tracks, Godlovesugly, Saves the Day, The Bass and the Movement, Fuck You Lucy, the bad tracks are still interesting but not for long and only have the characteristic Slug for a few moments though the beats are pretty consistent across the board.
Overall this is a pretty sick record. |
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stereobread
Digital
[Rating11620022]
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Decent lyricism from time to time and pretty good production for the most part but it's just so full of filler and Slug can get annoying after a while. The Murs & Slug albums were really good but I could easily pass on this. |
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cribz
great
Digital
[Rating19268616]
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This is what every rap album should be compared to. |
distribution | 0.5 | | 3 | | 1.0 | | 2 | | 1.5 | | 7 | | 2.0 | | 7 | | 2.5 | | 23 | | 3.0 | | 45 | | 3.5 | | 102 | | 4.0 | | 135 | | 4.5 | | 57 | | 5.0 | | 29 |
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Mickey Rivers | | |
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Disappointment from an average band. | | |
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Good; recommended for fans. | | Digital |
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I give it a 4.5...out of 5 | | |
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distribution | CD | | 216 | | CD-R | | 9 | | Vinyl | | 13 | | Digital | | 172 | | Multiple | | 1 | | Other | | 3 |
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rym
