I’ve got quite a few good things to say about Few Good Things.
Saba is arguably the most exciting Chicago hip hop artist in
the game right now. Yes, I realise that Chance and Kanye are both from the same
city, but their albums have both been pretty hit and miss recently. Saba
on the other hand seems to be going from strength to strength. His debut Care
For Me was a soulful mix of jazzy beats and introspective lyrics that ended
up making my 2018 AOTY list. Few Good Things has that same soulful feel,
but this time with creatively catchy hooks and energetic beats woven into the
mix.
The album opens with ‘Free Samples’. It’s admittedly not the
best start to the album – some dude named Cheflee offers some shaky singing, and
while the jazzy guitar arpeggios and Saba’s fiery rapping are fun, they sound a
little too heavily influenced by Kendrick’s TPAB. However, second track ‘One
Way or Every N***a With A Budget’ is much more solid song, featuring the first
of many super-catchy choruses on the album. It’s followed by a gauntlet of
bangers including mean bassy slapper ‘Survivor’s Guilt’, funky
Outkast-flavoured anthem ‘Fearmonger’ and soulful bop ‘Come My Way’ (the ‘and-then-we-gooood’
chorus is incredibly infectious).
There are less earworms in the middle of the album, but the
quality doesn’t really dip. ‘A Simpler Time’ features a shuffling creative beat
and ‘If I Had A Dollar’ features some wise words about persevering through
failure. ‘Stop That’ meanwhile takes alliterative tongue-twister bars to the
next level: ‘when you hit the mattress, imagine a mansion/I feel like a mad
man amassed in the vein’.
The best three tracks on the album come at the end – they
each feature gorgeous production and some of Saba’s most intimate bars. ‘Make
Believe’ is about facing the reality of fame and features some creative woozy
pitched-down vocals half-way through. ‘2012’ is a gorgeous nostalgia trip with
some touching bars about not realising what you’ve already got. Track title ‘Few
Good Things’ then serves as an epic seven minute closer. It features a spine-tingling
transition half-way through, followed by a great guest verse from Black Thought
and some passionate bars from Saba. My only gripe is that really really really
long pause towards the end of the track.
The incredible beats, the dynamic delivery and the soulful
lyrics all make for a fantastic album. And yet I feel Saba still has room to
grow - you can tell he's still in the process of searching for his sound.
★★★★☆
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