Jurassic 5 - Feedback Album Review

Jurassic 5
Feedback
Album Review

Ok, so it's 2006, and Jurassic 5 have just released this, 'Feedback'. So what have they brought us?! Another likeable full length of old skool hip-hop tunes that almost leave you as soon as they've left your ears? Or a refreshing set of new ideas and thought provoking rhymes?? Well, lucky for you, that's what I'm here for.....

Ok, let me fill you in a li'l bit first. We've all heard 'Concrete Schoolyard' and 'In the Flesh' but that was 1998, & a lot's happened. Cut Chemist has gone. Side projects have appeared, Blah, Blah, Blah, Yet it seems these guys are still watching the world from the same stoop through a smokey haze. 'Feedback', I'll be honest, it's a tad disappointing. Full of the usual tag-team vocal exchanges, funk breaks, party hooks and sampled treats that we've come to expect of J5, or is it J4 now?! Anyway, the style of this album is confused. Jumping from dirty south style beats to r'n'b tinged mediocrity that you could expect from the Pharcyde when they... y'know...went bad! Don't get me wrong. It's not all bad. The lyrical flows are still tight and interesting. Ok that might be it, but I can't help but wonder if J5 have bought any music since the 1980s?! Cause even the genres they're emulating in their production have evolved.

Can Cut Chemist have been responsible for more than we realised!? I'm not entirely sure, but what I do know is that I'm not feeling it. Which is a shame. Early J6 is great, and you really got the idea they'd be around to stay. Well I guess they have, but can anyone say 'It's better to burn out than to fade away'!?

Thom Holmes