Age Against The Machine

Expectations are intrusive enough when you’re dealing with a reunion from a long-dissolved beloved musical act. With the new Goodie Mob album, Age Against the Machine, that reunion is coupled with a reinvention: 14 years separate this record and the pop-leaning World Party, the last album Goodie Mob made with all four members and something of a contentious stylistic departure in itself. Things get even cloudier if you factor in the styles that the core members have been indulging since — the dearth of straight-up rap on Cee-Lo’s solo and Gnarls Barkley work; the engagingly indie-weird side project Willie Isz that Khujo did with Jneiro Jarel. A return to the Dungeon Family-driven vital spot hit by first two albums Soul Food and Still Standing seems unlikely in this context — this isn’t a group that seems that interested in looking backward.

Instead, Age Against the Machine reintroduces their Dirty Southern sociopolitical edge over a string of beats that are just glossy enough to dupe the unwary into thinking it’s a crossover record. The production slate includes contributions by neo-funk oddball Jack Splash and executive production by Cee-Lo himself. But the only real underlying factor tying it all together is a sense… read more »