Sage Francis has never been one to follow the herd. Rather than wearing a ton of bling bling and rapping about bitches and clubs, he’d rather tell you a real story with a little bit of philosophy and a whole lot of puns and clever rhymes mixed in.
That’s once again no different on “Li(f)e”, the man’s fourth studio album. It opens with a country and western kinda vibe before taking off with Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle providing backing vocals. It’s not the only one of Francis’ friends from the indie scene that are helping out. Next up is the uptempo “Three Sheets To The Wind” with Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla. Elsewhere on the album you can hear the guys from Calexico, Mark Linkous and film composer Yann Tiersen. Especially that last collaboration results in one of the album’s finest songs with Francis’ lines being an exact match for Tiersen’s bells and horns.
Sage Francis is a rapper with a thing or two to say about life and everything that comes with it and rather than delivering his message over rehashed beats and a sampled chorus from some forgotten 80s hit, he’s made yet another highly experimental hiphop album that I can totally get into.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
http://www.anti.com
http://www.sagefrancis.net
No comments:
Post a Comment