Lupe Fiasco: Tetsuo & Youth (Atlantic) While he’s undeniably masterful at what he does, Fiasco’s cynical politics are usually off-putting. Hence, I find that his music goes down easiest when he chases said cynicism with a lighter and poppier sound, as on my two favorites, 2007’s The Cool and 2011’s underrated Lasers. So while his cynicism isn’t at all toned down—after all, it’s who he is—this is at least more listenable and compelling than 2012’s Food & Liquor II, where he appeared to be doing damage control after the critical panning of Lasers. Here, it’s a mixture of his best qualities (flow, melodies, interesting choices in guest artists) and his worst (self-indulgence, overlong tracks, sometimes poor musical judgment), until what we’re left with is sufficient, but not exactly absorbing. Particularly distracting: the GarageBand orchestral sample that drives half of the almost nine-minute “Prisoner 1 & 2.” B+
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