debbie took a dune on doornail dorthy  in the dark

My quick review: Overall, I think it's a solid album, but falls just shy of being a worthy follow up to Opaque Brotherhood.

The first thing I noticed was that Shaggy really brought his A game on this album. He's always seemed like the weakest link to me on the previous albums, but not this one. I thought basically every time you heard him, he was saying something appropriate to the song, was on beat, and was really intense. He even used ABAB rhyme scheme for a while on one verse, which was very impressive. Good show, Mr. 2 Dope.

Conversely, J seemed to be lacking a little, particularly in what voice he uses to deliver some of the lines. Dark Lotus should be deep and intense, yet a lot of times he used higher pitched, screamy type voices on his lines, which sounds much more like ICP than Dark Lotus. His cadence was totally off on a few of them, and his lyrics didn't seem to always fit with the other verses on the songs.

I noticed a lot of singing in unison, and a lot of instances where a single person would sing something and the sound didn't quite match with everything else going on in the song. The chorus of Villainous is a good example...the production could have just been so much better, so the voices don't seem to sit on top of the beat so much.

My favorite song so far is Coagulate. It just reeks of being a Dark Lotus track, and I love it. Every track should have been this good! Let It Rain is my second favorite, which is sort of the same vibe as Withered, where they are a little deeper and more inspirational. Death in a Jar is great, as is Garden of Evil. No major complaints about 45 Minutes or My Head is Haunted. The rest are good, but will have to grow on me a bit.

Debbie in the Dark is some stupid shit. First of all, how many women their age (like 30s/40s) are named Debbie? Not many, since most Debbies are in their 50s and 60s now since it's a Baby Boomer name. So for an overtly sexual song, they picked a decidedly unsexual name for the main character. The chorus is horrible, with that "dark, dark, dark, dark" part sounding almost like the Swedish Chef going "bork bork bork bork." This is a mixtape quality song at best, and very disappointing to have been included on a Dark Lotus album.

Overall, so far, I'm giving like a 7 out of 10. It's good, but it's not spectacular. But it will probably grow on me more.

-Jules

Bought it yesterday, extremely satisfied. It's such a great album. Love everyone's new styles and the way they mesh. And that creepy soundin dude in the interludes, I think it's the same guy anyways, sets the tone for shit so well. Favorite tracks hands down are Price of Life and Villainous. Followed by My Kind Of Party and Coagulate. The rest is the shit too, but those 4 are the best IMO

I like this album tha more I listen to it. All tha concepts are dope as fuck. Also, does anyone know what tha photos in tha booklet are? If I had to take an educated guess, Id have to say Japan.  I know they always incorporate some real world location into an album. Ancient Egypt, Ruins of Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Tha Terracotta Army (China) and some crazy Japanese shit. something like that.

I think everyone kills it on the mwab, but man I fuckin love jamie's verses on this album. His voice, his style, his delivery. Especially on my kind of party and villainous. That scream at the beginning of his verse in the former and those nerdy references in the latter are the shit.

I love Let It Rain honestly...my only gripe is Sugar Slam having the last vocals on the album technically lol but I actually enjoyed her little contribution at the end and was fun hearing her and J sing together like that...J's singing on that song was some of the best I've heard from him honestly...not saying he should start getting Grammy nom's for his singing voice or anything but I liked it and thought he did very well on his verses also (some of his best on the whole album)...everyone else really killed it on that beat too one Mono's singing/rapping was dope, really like how Blaze came in with his verse...Shaggy and Madrox were great too

The Drought is my shit too..that production is probably the last thing I expected to hear on a Lotus record (sounds like something made for UGK or another Southern artist) but it works and everyone did their thing especially Madrox with that awesome verse and great singing on the chorus

LTB said
Bought it yesterday, extremely satisfied. It's such a great album. Love everyone's new styles and the way they mesh. And that creepy soundin dude in the interludes, I think it's the same guy anyways, sets the tone for shit so well. Favorite tracks hands down are Price of Life and Villainous. Followed by My Kind Of Party and Coagulate. The rest is the shit too, but those 4 are the best IMO