Album Review: Wu-Tang Clan - A Better Tomorrow

Back in the day ‘The Wu’ could do no wrong. A superb debut album, banging side projects like the Gravediggaz and a string of superlative solo releases meant that the Wu-tang logo equaled instant quality. Then came the missteps – bloated double LPs, overly commercial hooks, albums from shady hangers on and second-rate solo albums from emcees who should have known better. Well, it seems those days are over.

is probably the best Wu-tang ‘group’ album since the debut. Behind the boards RZA brings a slew of soul samples, sparse beats, ku-fung samples and some lush arrangements. Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a return to the grimy styles of

, but it is an album that boasts a sonic coherence that has been sorely lacking in Wu efforts of late. Vocally the entire Clan shines – well-known members, most prominently Method Man, sound reinvigorated, while lower profile emcees in the crew offer up some of the best verses of their careers (check out U-God’s furious verse on

).

That said there are still missteps (the bouncy

comes off as lightweight and the hook-driven

is somewhat saccharine) but none are serious enough to sink the project. The first emcee you hear on this record is ODB (R.I.P) – a clear admission that the Clan knows they have to recapture what made them great in the first place. And on the whole they’ve done that – where they go from here will be interesting.