8 Diagrams is one of the newest albums on this list, released right near the end of my CD-buying heyday, but back when I still had the attention span to give a fresh CD an abundance of chances to work its way into my brain. That's exactly what I did with 8 Diagrams: I left it in my car's CD player & let it work its magic on me. As a result of this listening style (which I'm trying to bring back with this blog series), I think of 8 Diagrams as a misunderstood album. Revisiting it was rewarding, since I found an album that was even more interesting than I remembered.
The usual dig (amplified by Raekwon himself) is that the production here lacks power & grit. I can't argue with that--very little ruckus is brought over this album's 63 minutes. What replaces it, though, is a murky, nocturnal mood, often minimalist, with unusual sound textures like the wailing guitars & atonal orchestra stabs of "Unpredictable"; the sparse drums & sinister guitar arpeggios (played by RZA himself) on "Gun Will Go," switching to a trebly high-passed skank for the final verse; the weird pitch bends of "Weak Spot"; or the white noise, whistling & questing bass of RZA's loping solo NGE screed "Sunlight."
RZA produced 12 out of 14 tracks, & the ones by other beatmakers are chosen to match the mood: Easy Mo Bee's darkly beautiful "Take It Back" could have easily come from RZA's album sessions. Wu protege Mathematics, on the other hand, contributes the album's weakest beat with "Stick Me For My Riches," which is overpowered by weirdly loud 808 hi-hats. (Seriously, once you key into those hi-hats it's like you can't hear anything else.) The emcees deliver desultory verses on the overlong song, with only a chorus by Gerald Alston providing a bright spot.
The old-school Wu sound does peek its head out here & there, particularly with the movie score-esque orchestrals of "Rushing Elephants," which finds Rae intoning a relieved "back to the formula," but I'm more captivated by the successes of the new approach, like the waterfall bassline & heavily flanged guitar chords of "Windmill," complete with leads by John Frusciante. The wordless chanted bassline of "Wolves" is like a night howl, with synths, handclaps & spaghetti western horns propelling it forward. Sadly we get 2 homophobic slurs on this track, from U-God & Masta Killa. Thankfully, Meth kicks what might be the best verse on the album, which is no surprise since this is the kind of beat he excels on.
The album's 1st single, the Beatles-sampling "The Heart Gently Weeps," is quite frankly a mess. Erykah Badu does a nice job with the hook, John Frusciante & George Harrison's son Dhani can't be faulted for their guitar work, but the verses are mostly about beating people up, & I struggle to understand how they connect to the song's concept & hook. It feels like the song wasn't very well thought through, & Ghost's big f-slur doesn't help matters.
Speaking of Ghostface, it's well-known that he & RZA were feuding at this time, so Ghost only gets 3 verses on the whole album. Most of the other members get 6 verses each, except U-God with 5, Rae with 7, & Meth with 8. The worst part is that Ghost got left off the ODB tribute "Life Changes" (Ghost claims he was never sent the music), which is a real shame because the otherwise moving elegy feels incomplete. I think Dirty's death 3 years prior is a major reason this album sounds the way it does. There is a sense of loss & emptiness to its sparse arrangements & its lyrical preoccupations (compare "C.R.E.A.M." to "Stick Me For My Riches.") Even the title is a direct reference to the group having lost a member. So I can't blame Rae, or anyone else, for wanting that old Wu-Tang sound back, but this album finds RZA at his most adventurous & genuinely mournful. It's a detour, but a fruitful one, even if the members didn't quite realize it at the time.
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