GZA's Liquid Swords (ALBUM OF THE WEEK #5)

[luney6]

6 members of the classical group suggested albums, and 3 of the members voted for them, with GZA's Liquid Swords being selected, receiving 12 points. In this thread, post your opinion of the album. Lengthy opinionated reviews and arguments are welcome! Also, please post an average rating out of 100 along with the review, which I shall average at the end of the week. Till then, you can change your rating as many times as you like. People who haven't participated in the selection of this album, or the album of the week thread are also welcome to post. Also, if you haven't heard of this album, or aren't aware of its position on AM, please don't look it up until after you post the review, as that'll help us get your unbiased opinion.

1. GZA - Liquid Swords - 12(two 5s and one 2)
2. OutKast - Stankonia - 11
3. Janet Jackson - the Velvet Rope - 9
4. Curtis Mayfield - Superfly - 9
5. Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul - 9
6. Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 - 9
7. Drake - Nothing Was the Same - 8
8. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - 8
9. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury - 8
10. Bootsy's Rubber Band - Ahh... The Name Is Bootsy, Baby! - 7

[luney6]

So far, I've heard only a few songs from this album, but I think they are pretty interesting. I'll listen to the whole album by tomorrow and then post my review.

[Jirin]

This is one of my favorite rap albums. Currently sits at #62 on my AT list. I'll put my thoughts into more detail when I have a chance to listen to it again, but I love the samurai theme and the implicit comparison to rap themes.

[luney6]

This was the first time I'd heard this album, as I'm not much into rap. Nevertheless, I'd heard of it before, and it was already on the list of albums I was planning to listen to, albeit not very ahead.

Personally, I found the album rather interesting. The production, I found, was like that of most other rap albums that I've heard, but less simple, and more detailed. The lyrics by GZA, with the Samurai themes, are some of the best rap lyrics I've heard, and are aptly complimented by RZA's production. What's different though, is that the tone is more relaxed, instead of immediate like all the rap albums I've heard before. There weren't many moments that it felt cheesy, and the atmosphere and tone was very well established. Overall, the album easily makes the top 5% of all the rap albums I've heard before, but doesn't seem able to touch my favorites in rap.

Favorite tracks: Hell's Wind Staff/Killah Hills 10304, Liquid Swords.

Score: 72

[bootsy]

I'm not real good at reviews so here goes:

One of the greatest hip hop albums and albums in general. This is an absolute timeless treasure. Also the best solo Wu album even topping Only Built for Cuban Linx, Ironman and Supreme Clientele . Not a skippable song on this album. I know that's going to be controversial and it's very close but I give the nod to Liquid Swords. The production is top notch from RZA with the melodies, kicks and snares of the beats and GZA's rhymes. The Shogun Assassin interludes flow great with the songs they are on. There isn't an overabundance of Wu member guest spots. It seems just right and not overshadow GZA. This album at the time of it's released got overshadowed by ODB, Meth, and Raekwon's solos and you could understand that because GZA isn't as popular as those 3 but make no mistake this is a classic album that still sounds fresh today as it did when it was released.

Favorite tracks: Liquid Swords, Shadowboxin, Cold World, and 4th Chamber

10/10

[Jirin]

As far as rap albums go, the only ones I like better are the biggest two by Public Enemy. I'm not a fan of gangster lyrics in general, but execution is brilliant. The album is full of sound clips from a samurai movie and all the samples are simple and atmospheric reminding you of the background music in a samurai movie. The story of the movie is something you could easily remake into a gangster drama. It's almost as if you're hearing the score to the modern gang remake to an old samurai film, and the lyrics flow really well and sink into the atmosphere of that movie.

[luney6]

Hope people are listening

[Nick]

I've only heard the album once so I'm not really able to add much in the way of commentary, but here goes nothing.

"Liquid Swords" is a really good album, maybe my third or fourth favorite Wu-Tang affiliated album ("36 Chambers" and "Fishscale" steal the top 2 spots, while "Liquid Swords" and "Supreme Clientele" fight over third place). As with the other commentators here, I really enjoy the how well the album blends together the samurai movie samples with the music, and especially the parallels that could be drawn between the life of the samurai and the life of the gangsta rapper. Another thing that's great about this album, that I can't say about some other Wu-Tang affiliated albums (like "Fishscale", "Supreme Clientele", and "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx"), is its ability to be concise. While other Wu-Tang rappers feel the need to pad out their album's run times with filler, lettering their albums stretch into the 60 and 70 minute range, "Liquid Swords" is over in an extremely manageable 50 minutes. In fact, when I was looking up how long this album was just now, I was a bit shocked that it was 50 minutes, as I had definitely remembered it seeming like it had only lasted for about 35 to 40 minutes or so. Just goes to show how well the GZA packed so many ideas into this album and still made it seem like the album flew by.

[Pierre]

First rap album of the Album of the week feature - and what an album! I had never heard it before, but I admit I was floored.

Back on the first Wu-Tang album, one of the guys mentioned how GZA was the Genius with lyrics, and that he constituted the backbone of the whole clan. Nevertheless, he was curiously underused on the album with few real moments in the spotlight. Now, with a whole album to flex his lyrical muscles, it is easier to understand why they looked up to him so highly: the level is constantly high, with the vivid imagery depicting a disjointed but alarming portrait of the American suburbs situation. Grice's vocabulary is one of the richest in all of hip-hop, and when he throws the occasional scientific or chess analogies in the whole mix, he manages to make them flow seamlessly within the rest. The cheesiest part is on "Labels" - which is built in such a way GZA can drop as much label names as possible. But it is done so well that even there he isn't off-putting. The album is often regarded as a tour de force in this regard, and it's not hard to see why. I admit I had to listen to the album with the lyrics before my eyes, as English is not my native language and rappers tend to eat syllables, but even then it's still highly impressive.

The performance is slightly more problematic. GZA's delivery is near-consistently relaxed, which is probably justified by the necessary concentration to not stumble within his complex lyrics. Still, it slightly undermines the urgency of the situation that he depicts, without turning into a sociological course either - he's a great MC, but slightly not engaging as others, and in this context, featuring more muscular Clan members like Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck or even RZA and the uncontrollable Ol' Dirty Bastard is a calculated risk. Thankfully, they adapt for the most part to GZA's own flow and do not steal the spotlight too much. Granted, ODB's responsible for one of the goofiest parts of the album (his singing in the background of "Hell's Wind Staff"), but on an album that also features "Labels" and the silly "I Gotcha Back" outro that pokes fun at "Protect Ya Neck", you can't blame him. GZA was perfectly self-aware of the (rare) lighter moments of the record.

Talking about the "Shogun Assassin"-sampling outro, it's time to talk about the album's co-star, producer RZA. Since "Enter the Wu-Tang", Mr. Diggs has been producing the framing for the entire body of work of Wu-Tang affiliates - only occasionally leaving room for True Master and 4th Disciple or the other Clan members, and no matter what it's not the case on "Liquid Swords" - and he has done so in a masterful way, with his haunting, minimalistic work influenced by movie soundtracks, dub and old soul records, plus these samurai and Hong Kong movies samples that are both eerily fitting and which unfortunately aged somewhat, but back then it was still as impactful as ever. From "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" onwards, however, he began to experiment slightly more with his sound, and here on "Liquid Swords" he is lusher than he has ever been; don't get me wrong, it's no pop music either. But he's leaning firmly toward trip-hop, and more precisely Tricky's work ("4th Chamber" in particular sounds like it was done directly from a "Maxinquaye" outtake). Still, it fits pretty well with the rest of his work so far, and RZA's in top form no matter what. The production strengthens the impact of GZA's lyrics, and is just as striking.

Certainly one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, "Liquid Swords" was another milestone in the rich first run of albums from the Wu-Tang. In 1995, the focus of East Coast rap might have been drifting towards Biggie and Nas (and soon a newcomer named Jay-Z), but when listening to the early Wu-Tang legacy, these guys sounded like they were about to set the world ablaze. Seriously, what other collective or band in hip-hop can show off a string as impressive as "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)", "Tical", even "Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version" which is ridiculously better than any album by ODB should have any right to be, "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx", "Liquid Swords" and "Ironman"? And you can throw in "L'École du micro d'argent", too - IAM recorded it in New York with heavy input from RZA, and Wu-Tang members intervene on the "La Saga" track to mention that they create a new chamber specifically for them. Listening to any of these albums today, one can only wonder why these guys vanished from the public and critical consciousness. Perhaps the death of Russell Jones has stripped them of their mojo, but still, on "Liquid Swords" proper GZA sounds like he was a lyrical juggernaut. What happened?

Lyrics: 10 (some of the best lyrics ever in hip-hop history)
Music: -
Originality: 9.5 (already the fifth album from the Wu-Tang and RZA's starting to need to diversify his bag of tricks while the samurai movie thing is slightly getting old, but GZA's approach is totally personal)
Performance: 9 (GZA's delivery is not the most impressive in the hip-hop world, but he still does the job tremendously well)
Production: 10 (RZA's production is perfect without stealing the spotlight)

Total: 9.6

[Nassim]

That's also my 2nd favorite Wu-Tang related release (well, 3rd if you count Fugazi). As Nick said it's the most consistent and concise solo Wu-Tang album and there's no fat remaining there. I don't care much for lyrics as a hip-hop listener, because I have been quite used at not understanding them (at least not the first time listening) so the hip-hop albums I love are mostly beats and flow driven (though some of them have fantastic lyrics, I usually discover that afterwards), and beats wise this delivers.
The skits are cool, though I could do with a couple less.
The best Wu-Tang solo tracks are, for me, in Ghostface Killah's 00s albums (but as said previously, they lack Liquid Swords consistency) but 4th Chamber is probably my favorite from the 00s, with 3 awesome guest verses.

My grade : 8.6

[whuntva]

Doesn't really get started until around the middle. Some of my favorites are right at the end.

Production is top-notch, rhymes are good. All-in-all, a very successful album.

[GucciLittlePiggy]

Number of listens: 4

1. Liquid Swords
2. Duel of the Iron Mic
11. Swordsman
3. Living in the World Today
7. 4th Chamber
4. Gold
5. Cold World
9. Hell's Wind Staff / Killah Hills 10304
12. I Gotcha Back
8. Shadowboxin'
10. Investigative Reports
6. Labels

This album was a recent discovery of mine but it is climbing my all-time list nonetheless. It grabs me immediately with one of the best openers I've heard on a rap record and keeps the momentum going for a few tracks. It dips a bit after track 5 as the production doesn't surprise and grip me from then on quite as frequently, though GZA's lyrics and flow never waver in quality. In fact, every vocal contribution is near flawless on this record, with Ghostface, unsurprisingly, being the star of the guest rappers (he's the owner of my favorite two Wu solo records). I think it's a travesty that "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth" isn't on the proper album, though, as it would have ranked as my second favorite track. Regardless, Liquid Swords is a fantastic album that cements The Genius's status as my second favorite Wu-Tang member.

overall score: 89
all-time ranking: 157

[notbrianeno]

There's not much I can say here that others with a more knowledgeable base in hip-hop than me have already said. This is a consistently great, often dark, sometimes creepy, always badass record. The sinister clips from Shogun Assassin have aged very well when compared to other "skits" from the same era. Whereas other "classic" rap albums have sometimes failed to capture my interest (*ahem* Reasonable Doubt) Liquid Swords maintains a constant level of anxious tension that builds throughout its length. The samples that make up the instrumentals often clash, with the dissonance only adding to the albums glacial darkness. GZA's rhymes are fantastic, enveloping the listener in his world of crime and desperation, abandoning traditional narrative in favor of pure emotive force. A seedy voyage into the underbelly of New York, well deserving of its anointed status.

overall score: 93/100
all-time ranking: 72

[luney6]

Last official day.

[luney6]

Avg. Score: 89.3

[luney6]

Thank you everyone for participating. There were a lot of interesting and nice reviews, that were rather fun to read. If one hasn't offered their review, or score yet, they can still do so. I shall update the score every time a new one is added.