Album Review: Eyedea & Abilities - By The Throat (2009)

The story of Eyedea & Abilities coming together is always been viewed as one of the more unique things I've heard in hip-hop. Both artists were relative experts in their respect crafts. Eyedea was originally garnering attention as a battle emcee where he won Scribble Jam and also won the HBO Blaze Battle. Abilities released several mixtapes that allowed him to win three Disco Mix Club awards for his work on the turntables. The two eventually joined forces to release two albums (First Born in 2001 & E&A in 2004) through Rhymesayers Entertainment. After a four-year hiatus that included the artists searching other sounds in music and have returned.

Today, they release "By The Throat," their newest concoction of 11 songs once again on Rhymesayers Entertainment. The album, as always, is entirely produced by Abilities and the sounds you will hear on this album are a very different sound you won't expect from the typical Eyedea & Abilities that they have become known for. Instead, you will find very aggressive in-your-face guitar samples and loud live drums producing a sound that almost sounds like a live Rock band more than hip-hop.

By The Throat is overall a very pleasing album. I think one pleasantly surprising factor was that the vocals on the entire album are all of Eyedea. That's right, not a single guest feature. For some artists this can cause them to have a tendency to make their album sound very monotonous because of the same voice on every song, however it doesn't hurt this album one bit. Eyedea's approach to each song is very different keeping things fresh from song to song. One song he will be singing, the next song he will be using his quick spitting rhymes and the next time he is reminiscent of a lead for an indie-rock band. Plus, Eyedea does a very good job of painting the stories in his songs. The biggest criticism I have of this album is that it sounds more like an indie-rock album than a hip-hop album and there aren't any songs that have that fun loving sound that originally allowed me to fall in love with E&A. There isn't a "Big Shot" or a "Now" anywhere to be found on this album which was certainly disappointing, no doubt, and "Junk" and "Factory" border on being flat out annoying to listen to.

In the end, however, this album has a very indie-rock sound yet it has good replay value. It is not 20 songs with 8 songs of filler, it is 11 songs that, for the most part, play well from one to the next. The highlights of the album include "Burn Fetish," "Smile," "This Story" and "Time Flies When You Have A Gun" - a song about how giving up the ownership of a gun gives a man both sanity and safety. It sounds more like something you would expect from P.O.S. than Eyedea & Abilities, but overall it's still a good listen.

Best Song: Burn Fetish
Rating: 6.2/10