Modal Soul

Banger 5

Another one of those sacred cow albums where my opinion starts and ends at: "Yeah that was pretty alright I think". Inoffensive, chill jazzy hip hop. 3/5.

Did not hear this one coming… it’s smooth as all get-out, veering into cul-de-sacs of hip hop, easy listening, jazz and even a bit of disco. What an interesting selection.

10/10 first time listening to Nujabes, and it’s so cool hearing an artist who pioneered the lofi-hip hop genre really great stuff :D

Jazz rap, hip hop, trip hop. Me ha gustado. Un 4.

A lovely album; thanks

Another sad tale... I like this a lot, this kind of jazz-hip hop fusion feels like an underrepresented missing link on that side of the pop spectrum. Lots of mid-2000s Adult Swim nostalgia.

Smooth jazz-hiphop. Like it as background music

I didn’t like the rap but the rest was ok.

This sounds like the kind of late 90s stuff that made Nuyorican Soul do so well - but from the mid-2000s. Surprising to find out that it's from a Japanese DJ. It's OK - better than most, but not something I found to be world-altering.

Ok, this is a definite spinout - jazzy piano and hip hop. No idea what to make of it. End of album: I wasn't expecting the to be Japanese... anyway, it was alright. Got a bit samey. 3/5.

Yeah, it's pretty smooth soul-jazz-hip-hop electronica. Opener "Feathers" and "Luv(sic.)pt.3" stand out immediately. I was also smitten with "The Sign", where Pase Rock does a Gil Scott-Heron impersonation that's so convincing I had to check the credits to see if it was not a sample playing instead of a featuring. The rest goes to a streamlined pace that's somewhat pleasant but not exactly revolutionary in those genres. There are expert lounge-jazz piano playing effects nicely conveyed through the equally expert programming of the Japanese DJ. But as nice-sounding as the thing is, the less striking cuts still personally sound quite derivative to my ears, and also like stuff that could be used for as "illustrative music" for some informative video online. The best tracks are still making the obvious artistry valuable, though. Rest in peace, Nujabes. 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums rounded up to 3 7.5/10 for more general purposes: 5 + 2.5 ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 50 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 66 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 121 (including this one) --- Hey, Émile. Tu as déjà dû voir ma dernière réponse sous la review de *Young, Loud And Snotty* des Dead Boys ! J'essaie d'écrire la mienne bientôt

Modal Soul is a nice laid back hip hop album by Nujabes. I do not like the production/mixing of the album though. For example on "Feather" the piano is way too loud pushing the rap to the far distant background. "Ordinary Joe" has a similar issue with too dominant drums. The songs are good in the beginning, but the quality (or my interest) starts to decrease halfway.

An interesting and nuanced hip-hop LP with some great beats, enjoyed the more involved instrumentation and clear vision in composing the backing tracks. Does get a bit repetitive at times, and the back half feels more demo-tape without any features on top (which feels like a weird omission), but an enjoyable listen nonetheless.

Oh gosh, it’s very kind of you but no thank you. Please just leave me alone now.