The Voice Review

Grief albums are usually made at a distance and this one was not, which gives it a quality nothing else in his catalogue has. He recorded it in the weeks after King Von was killed and the writing has no shape imposed on it, just naming, remembering and repeating, and the effect is closer to someone talking than performing. The Voice is the anchor and it is genuinely difficult to sit through, a hook delivered with the voice cracking in places nobody bothered to fix.

Backdoor is furious. Stay Down and Should've Ducked keep the mood without softening it. The production is dark and restrained, mostly piano figures and low drums, and that restraint is a real choice given how easy the alternative would have been. It is not a fun record and it was never meant to be. It is the one that makes the case for him as a writer.