Thundercat, AKA Stephen Bruner, sure has been picking up some speed over the last few years. He's been a mainstay on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label for years, he's had countless fantastic collaborations with Lotus, Kamasi Washington, Kendrick Lamar and tons of others, and he puts on an incredible live show (if you haven't seen him, it's pretty awe-inspiring). He's toyed around with a few different genres over the years as well, take for example his 2011 "The Golden Age of Apocalypse". For the most part this was an electronic album, a pretty decent one too, accompanied by Thundercat's explosive bass playing and high pitched vocals. I thought it was a solid debut, but honestly I was more interested of seeing how Thundercat would transition his way out of his electronic phase. And indeed he did, slowly. On "Apocalypse" Thundercat started showing tons more personality, bringing in elements of funk and jazz to accompany his electronic side. It wasn't a perfect album, but it was more memorable, and started showing Thundercat really coming into his own. It was on his stellar 2015 EP "The Beyond/Where The Giants Roam" that I started to really appreciated Thundercat's music. His lineup for backing musicians here was grade A, for the most part the whole electronic vibe was gone, and while it was a short EP it felt really complete. By this point, I felt like I was beginning to seriously get who Thundercat was. But I still felt like I needed more, another full length album for his personality to really come out. Let's talk about this new Thundercat album, "Drunk"
The album starts off with "Rabbot Ho", which contains countless wonderful harmonies and Thundercat overall sounds fantastic. But let me just get this out of the way nice and early, why the hell does this album have so many short interludes. Don't get me wrong, most of them are actually really solid, but it's just a really strange way to plan out an album. For the most part, "Drunk" is comprised of 3 or 4 interludes back to back then one or two longer tracks. The result is a whole lot of really short tracks that would be a whole lot better if they went on another minute or so. "Rabbot Ho" quickly goes from a really sweet opener to more or less an afterthought, which is a real shame. Up next is "Captain Stupido". Thundercat's over the years has had sort of a really bizarre sense of humor, but it's never been this front and center. Thundercat here runs down seemingly countless tasks and activities in a rather mundane day.. However, he's putting his own tongue-in-cheek feel to it. To be honest, it actually comes together really nicely. Instrumentally, this is right where Thundercat should be. There are some jazzy undertones, and if you take the time to pinpoint each instrument there's actually a TON of really fantastic stuff going on. It's upbeat, it's catchy, it's certainly quirky, but it's still on the short and underdeveloped side. It's enjoyable for it's entirety, but I really would have loved to hear this flushed out longer. However, on "Uh Uh" quickly Thundercat takes a big nosedive quality-wise. This track if anything has a Flying Lotus vibe, which is cool and all, but this doesn't fit Thundercat's sound at all. When things picks up here, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't awe inspiring. Thundercat's bass playing is beyond description, and his energy is absolutely fantastic, I can't stress enough how awesome his live shows are. Once again we find ourselves with a nice little interlude, but as far as the instrumentals go I thought he was past got past this phase with his last EP. Don't get me wrong, the musical talent here is pretty ridiculous, but I can't get behind this all together. Thankfully, Thundercat in between these short, underwhelming tunes gives us tracks like "Bus In These Streets". This one has some serious old school R&B/Funk flair to it, to be honest though it's a sound that works great for Thundercat. His vocals seem seriously right at home among this light and airy atmosphere. It's far from what I expected to hear on this album, but it gives us a small look into Thudnercat's major influences, which is really fascinating. His singing here is a little one dimensional, but that's not enough to bring this track down, I really wouldn't mind hearing more stuff like this in the future. Thundercat continues down this route with "A Fan's Mail (Tron Song Suite II)". Thundercat's sense of humor once again is on full display with these bizarre meowing sound effects, and tosses in some Disney references as well with his "everybody wants to be a cat" lyric and Lion King references. Not to mention, Thundercat takes this moment to return to J Dilla's "Stepson The Clapper" beat which is buried discreetly underneath everything else going on here. Thundercat's personality continues to be very likable and much easier to connect with as well. This track for what it's worth still comes off really nicely, but that is mostly because this is a longer track that's actually explored the right way. When we reach "Lava Lamp" though, things start seriously getting a little bland. By this point, a whole lot of the sounds that Thundercat is offering up are really starting to blend together. While there's plenty of great songs and sounds here, Thundercat seriously needs to mix it up a little. All of these airy atmospheres and vocals are all meshing together to the point where I can barely distinguish some of these interludes. This certainly isn't bad, but in moments like this I would highly recommend just going to see Thundercat live or listen to his last EP. The synths that pop in are nice and give this track a nice spacey feel, but the rest is nothing more than just OK. On the other hand "Jethro" instantly from this intro grabs me. On this track, Thundercat just sounds so much more energetic and willing to branch his sound out. His vocals here aren't the slightest bit boring, just the opposite. The vibe here is so much more bouncy and not airy at all, it's also on the more serious side of things. But to be honest this EASILY could have been two minutes longer. I mean it's still fantastic, but why didn't Thundercat take some of these songs and dive deeper into them? Then we have moments like "Day & Night", which goes right back to sounding like literally every other track on here. It's 37 seconds long, I would love to get on board and dive in deeper but virtually nothing happens. Thundercat so far on this album shows fantastic personality and instrumental prowess. But he seriously needs to hunker down on song structure, cause this is all over the place.
Thundercat as the album goes on does get a little bit more consistent. “Show You The Way” bizarrely enough featuring Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald is a HUGE step in the right direction. To be honest, all of these sort of retro tinged tracks seriously are sounding great for Thundercat. Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald both sounds fantastic on this smooth R&B jam, and there’s just enough of Thundercat’s goofy side in those introductions to make this track work. If you would have told me that in the year 2017 a collaboration between these 3 would have worked half as well as it actually did, I wouldn’t have believed you. Plus, that last little spoken word bit by Thundercat is absolutely hilarious. But man, what a bummer “Walk On By” is. Right off the bat these instrumentals sound sort of ugly. The synth beat here is so sluggish that I’m honestly confused on what I’m even listening to. I’m all for Thundercat trying some new stuff but this is just boring. There isn’t a single interesting instrumental in sight, even his vocals don’t sound completely invested. So of course logic would tell me that of all people to make this track exciting Kendrick Lamar would be the right man for the job. To be honest though, he really doesn’t do anything to liven up this track at all. His performance is average at best, but everything else is just so sluggish, this track overall is just awful. “Blackkk” which is up next certainly has some life to it, and were back to at least a technically sound track. But really quickly this just becomes bizarre and hard to place. There are a few cool moments here and there as far as instrumentals go, but the vocals never really add up. Plus, before this one even gets going, it’s over, once again. Structurally this album can’t keep on its feet. While earlier I said that I felt like Thundercat had to seriously step away from the electronics, “Tokyo” I can’t deny one bit. The vocals here are a nice switch up for Thundercat, and we’re not listening to the same vocal harmonies over and over. His sense of humor is back in a big way here, as he goes on and on about eating too much Sushi, and spending too much money on Anime. Honestly, I love it, it makes me feel like I personally know Thundercat. Overall, this track is a fantastic sound for him. Ironically these electronic tracks act as a nice break up to the album that was becoming a little stagnant. “Jameel’s Space Ride” is another upbeat, sweet, and catchy electronic track, that once again let’s Thundercat’s personality come out. The only problem is, this one is barely over a minute long. Once again, this structure is killing me. Thankfully, Thundercat continues on this creative streak by bringing in some serious funk (which this album for the most part has been lacking). “Friend Zone” is the funky jam that I’ve been looking for. The cosmic atmosphere is 100% on point, and the constantly rising and falling synths behind Thundercat are a great addition. As far as some of the longer, more fleshed out tracks here, this is absolutely a standout. Not to mention that line about “Not texting him after 2am unless your giving me some (Because I Have Enough Friends)” was absolutely hilarious. As iffy as this album is and continues to be, Thundercat’s personality is right where it should be. The funk sticks around heavy for “Them Changes”, its certainly just a fantastic sound for Thundercat. Even his vocals on here come off so jazzy and refreshed. “Them Changes” is one of the more straightforward tracks on this album, but it works well. Not to mention, when he ends up popping into his upper vocal registry everything turns stunning. This is also one of the most instrumentally sound tracks we’ve heard here in a while. But this marks the end to Thundercat’s real creative streak sadly. “Where I’m Going” starts off great with a very cool mysterious vibe to everything. Instrumentally this continues to be on point, but vocally what is Thundercat even going for here. To be honest, this track would have been a whole lot better as just an instrumental, Thundercat’s vocals come off as distracting. “Where I’m Going” overall is just solid, frantic Jazzy track that quickly derails and ends up being messy.
We’ve still got a way to go people. Up next is “Drink Dat” featuring everyone’s favorite Weed smoker, Wiz Khalifa. I love how literally just his presence here alone turns this track instantly into a more drug-oriented track. This beat is just so sluggish, and while the hazy atmosphere I usually really dig, this ends up being awful. Thundercat’s vocals here come off more awkward than anything and totally out of place, and worst of all repetitive. This track in general doesn't even fit the feel of this album at all. When Wiz shows up for his verse things go from awkward to laughable. I wasn’t a fan of him to begin with, but this is seriously an all time low for him. His verse is so half-assed and boring, I couldn’t say a nice thing about it if i tried. Thankfully, Thundercat bounces back quickly with “Inferno”, one of the best tracks here by far. Instrumentally this is a bit stripped down compared to the rest of the tracks here, and the multiple layered effects on top of Thundercat’s vocals are actually really well done. To be honest, a little more of these effects throughout the album would have been welcomed massively. The atmosphere on “Inferno” is colorful and actually stunning, and vocally this may be Thundercat’s biggest track here. But come on, then the entire last minute of this track has this highly unnecessary 40 second fade out. The production and structure of this entire album remains very questionable. And seriously, Thundercat seriously needs to trim down the fat on some of these releases. There are tons of different sounds here, but only about half of them really go over well. The last few tracks on this album not to shockingly are all under two and a half minutes, and are just as all over the place as the rest of the album. “I Am Crazy” is smooth and Thundercat sounds fine, and I do enjoy the funky licks. But this track is literally 26 seconds long, and I can’t seriously grab on to anything. “3AM” up next actually gives me some hope listening to this intro. Thundercat sounds good and all, and I’m really digging this much more minimal instrumental, with only a few quiet plucking and strings behind him. But at this point this shouldn't be so shocking, this track is only a minute and fifteen seconds long. I sure would have loved to dive much deeper into this track, but there’s just not enough to it. Just another bizarre choice. Up next on “Drunk”, Thundercat’s vocals are once again solid, and there’s plenty of really nice effects on his vocals too. The instrumentals however are so un-interesting here. His usual quirky lyrics here just come off as really annoying, and once again this is in and out in under 2 minutes. As these tracks go on, I feel like I have less and less to say. Then we have “The Turn Down” featuring Pharrell. This track with its much more somber tone actually really caught me off guard. It’s much heavier, and even with Thundercat bringing in bizarre lyrics about Captain Planet it’s done really well. Overall, what’s most bizarre about this track is that it ends up bringing a sense of realism to this album that I think it needed. Pharrell’s inclusion is pretty solid too, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome and it works well with Thundercat’s performance. 22 tracks later and we’ve reached the finale, “DUI”. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad track, but at this point Thundercat’s singing has become beyond one dimensional. Literally, this track sounds like 6 other tracks on here. I honestly like the twinkling synths behind Thundercat quite a bit, and the synths that come in later are even better. But everything else about this one just washes right over me.
Rating: 7.2/10
Give A Listen To: "Bus In These Streets", "Show You The Way", "Friend Zone", "Them Changes", "Inferno"
Overall Thoughts - I had nothing but high hopes for this album. I wanted an album that was really going to give me a serious look into Thundercat's personality. And I certainly got that. But so many of the production choices here as well as structural choices are just plain BIZARRE. The features are questionable for the most part, and half of the best songs on here are under two minutes, desperate to be fleshed out more. It's a mess honestly, and while there's plenty of good about this album there's also a ton of bad.
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