#88 - Mick Jenkins - Elephant in the Room REVIEW

Listen on: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube

Video animation by: Big Flowers

Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING

Beginning of Episode (0:49).

Although I wasn't a huge fan of The Circus, I think Mick really learnt something from creating that album, as it relates to being more concise.

Elephant in the Room doesn't overstay its welcome. The songs are refined as hell, with no wasted space, showing his most finely tuned blend of melodic soul singing, and rap.

There's a great seamless flow to this album that is accentuated beautifully by the wonderful smoothness in the melodies and hooks. These hooks are all so well put-together, even by Mick's standards, which are high as this has always been a key strength in his artistic arsenal.

At its fundamental level, Mick is COMFORTABLE on Elephant in the Room.

What was a bit of a drawback on previous projects like Pieces of a Man, where I felt he didn't push himself as much stylistically, on this album he keeps certain elements like the production mostly familiar, while giving himself the room to be more natural and less forced, ditching the rigid themes and concepts found in his past records.

While not a project I think that reaches the highs of THC or The Water(s), Elephant in the Room is an album that manages to say more and do more, with less.

If Mick can find a way to marry this more looser approach with some more musical experimentation, I believe that he can still deliver the true classic album that I've always felt he's been capable of delivering.

RMPP Preferred Cut: "Reflection"

Buy/stream Elephant in the Room here.