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Nodima
 Good; recommended for fans.
Digital
[Rating26032921]
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Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP's (Produced by A.N.T. unless noted) [Rhymesayers Entertainment 2001]
1|Between the Lines|5:20 4
2|Like Today|4:03 4 - 4.25
3|Tears for the Sheep|2:51 3 - 3.75
4|Guns and Cigarettes|4:21 3.25 - 4
5|Don't Ever Fucking Question That|4:18 4
6|It Goes|4:28 4
7|If I Was Santa Claus|3:51 3 - 3.25
8|Aspiring Sociopath|5:24 2.25 - 3
This track sounds a lot more like spoken word than rapping. Beat is terrible.
9|Free or Dead|4:46 (Produced by Jel) 2.25 - 3
10|Party for the Fight to Write|3:54 3 - 3.25
11|Mama Had a Baby and His Head Popped Off|4:24 3.5 - 4
12|They're All Gonna Laugh @ You|2:05 (Produced by Jel) 3.75 - 4
13|Lost and Found|4:49 (Produced by Jel) 3 - 3.75
14|The Woman With the Tattooed Hands|3:30 3.25 - 4
Really bad sung coda that pretty much ruins this song because Slug just repeats it for a solid minute or more. Which is a shame because this song is really interesting otherwise.
15|Nothing But Sunshine / Homecoming (feat. El-P)|11:39 (Produced by Moodswing9) 3 - 3.5
Too bad the long silence and beat are lame. This track is home to one of the most Slug-like Slug raps in history: "the type of giggle to make a young mother smile". Always giving someone more problems, this time teen pregnancy. Even the happy memories have their negative connotations.
Overall: 52 - 53 3.50/5 69 - 71%: Good; detracting problems; TRY IT
I'm going through Atmosphere today because if there's one powerful artist of the '00s I've spent practically zero time with, it's Atmosphere. One of my few hip-hop enjoying friends in middle school loved Atmosphere and Beastie Boys; I remember making a decision at that point that Atmosphere was white boy hip-hop and carried on. Seven's Travels came out and he was making a big deal about it - iTunes was making a big deal about it - so I checked it out. Little did I know that was the beginning of a rough relationship with Atmosphere. Over the following years I've grown to really like Sean Daley, better known as Slug. As an MC he has all his bases covered - he can battle, he can tell a story, he can make a girl song, he can just straight rhyme, whatever you want. Of course these skills weren't so honed at the point of Lucy Ford, but the point of Lucy Ford is of course to show the potential for these skills to become as solid as they are today. The two opening songs show off what Daley's best at, painting pictures of depressing life situations and turning them into, against the odds, enjoyable boom bap raps.
No, my real problem with Atmosphere has always been A.N.T. I'm not sure why, because listening to A.N.T. productions there isn't much that separates him from producers I enjoy. What's really so bad about "Guns and Cigarettes", a track built around the familiar Lyn Collins "woo, yah!" vocal and a Cannonball Adderley sample and something that sounds straight out of Exile's beat book? I'm not sure, but I know that throughout this album and every Atmosphere album I get the feeling like A.N.T.'s beats are making a conscious effort to be useful but not necessarily entertaining. They are enjoyable, but at the same time simple in a way that isn't exactly as flattering as Premier's work. I'm not sure what influences I hear in A.N.T.'s music, but to be honest these are some of his more enjoyable productions. He usually seems to fit like a glove with Daley's voice, maybe because they've worked together so much, but these kind of beats have held albums like Brother Ali's Shadow on the Sun back for me so I'm not surprised I felt like bringing it up again here. All that aside though, it's the first appearance of an outside producer (Jel's "Free or Dead") is just as weak (if not weaker) than A.N.T.'s contribution, so this is obviously a case of me not appreciating these guys' style.
Another issue with Lucy Ford, despite the earnestness and honesty, is the group's tendency to spend way too much time talking about things that are a real downer. When I'm in the right mood, I really appreciate Atmosphere for it. There really are few experiences as eye-opening and upsetting as a serious rap song that breaks your flaws down. But Atmosphere tends to give you a concentrated hour of that conversation repeated ad nauseam in various disguises, and by the end of any given Atmosphere release I'm just exhausted of the so-called "relevant" lyricism. In fact, usually by the middle I'm about done with it. All of these medium-level problems for an MC thankfully aren't emphasized by Lucy Ford's early placement in the Atmosphere development cycle. Tracks like "Like Today" are prescient and "It Goes" reveals the type of humor that helps me love later period works like Strictly Leakage and Slug's features on other LPs. This is another one of my weird, overly negative reviews attached to a positive score that I can't explain away easily, but I guess I normally do that with artists I have issues with. Or maybe it's songs like "If I Was Santa Claus" and "Aspiring Sociopath" that do it to me. I've tried to get into Atmosphere's discography and just have never been able to; I'm very interested to see how this excursion over the next day or two plays out. As for Lucy Ford, it's enjoyable on a spontaneous listen but do I feel like listening to it often if ever? No, not really. |
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kebab
[Rating24768933]
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A must have for all alternative hip-hop's fans. Far away from the deconstructionism of Anticon Records early records, Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP's is the white version of A Tribe Called Quest, with the same maniacal attention to beats and samplers (like the electric blues of "Guns and Cigarettes" or the smooth bassline in "Party for the Fight to write"). |
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neilchafin
 very very good
Digital
[Rating18669119]
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My fav Atmosphere release. Only a few weak spots on one of their shorter releases. Check this out. |
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roadshell
Digital
[Rating17353690]
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Really strong rap by a real talent who's commercial enough to be an easy listen but not commercial enough to get the attention he deserves. |
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jkjmundy
Digital
[Rating16733324]
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almost a classic
but there best album |
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JGood
[Rating16351382]
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Atmosphere finally takes a step up in quality with this release. The album starts off strong with Between the Lines and Like Today. I could do without Tears for the Sheep, but Guns and Cigarettes brings my interest right back and they surprisingly manage to keep it throughout the release. This is where I really started getting into Atmosphere. This is their first fairly consistent album and I was hoping would be a taste of things to come. Unfortunately it wasn't.
Rating:
3/5 |
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pairsay
Digital
[Rating14772955]
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16/06/2009
This is a collection off tracks from the lucy ford e.p's...making a full album of tracks...this is my first listen and i like it ....some good tracks here....i like some of the rapping though some of it sounds a bit childish....the beats are mostly good though some of them are a little boring...the names of some of the songs are unusual ...i give this 3.50
Best Track.........................Between The Lines |
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lonely_panda
 Unreal 2
[Rating9904793]
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The lyricism is just insanely good, but the music is hit and miss. I'm sure these were better as bite-sized EPs. |
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Linkinpunk17
CD
[Rating9374378]
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one of his first 'real' releases.
great Cd, the lyrics as always are at their best.
hard not giving this a 5. |
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bfonf
CD
[Rating5729039]
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The lyrics on this album is what sells it for me. Some really smart, quick lyrics and good delivery. |
rym
