Saul Williams - s/t

Saul Williams
s/t
Fader Label
Grade: A-

I’ve always viewed Saul Williams from afar. That is, Williams has seemingly been at the epicenter of hip for a number of years, but never enough into a mainline consciousness. That may change on this latest record which varies sounds so much that the tracks are enormously accessible and thick and rich in lyrical content. So, take note of Saul Williams and what he has to say.

Saul Williams headed to NYC for post-grad at NYU and began to get involved in poetry open mics across the city. Williams’ first real smash onto the artist stage came in the late 1990s when he took the lead role in Slam, the slam poetry film by Marc Levin. Though Williams has vast skills, he excels with poetry and particularly spoken word. His work has been compiled into a wealth of books and articles across the literary spectrum from the New York Times to Essence to Elle. The move to putting his words to music was a natural progression which now is beginning to come into its own.

For his latest music offerings, Williams enlisted a host of friends to help him develop and expand his craft. This includes Zack de la Rocha, SOAD’s Serj Tankian and Isaiah Key Owens of the Mars Volta among others. These inputs coupled with the vast and dazzling lyrical content by Williams makes for one of the best and varied records of the year. And what is the sound? Well, it is nearly impossible to characterize beyond ‘urban.’ While the most obvious connection may be with the hip hop world, the songs and sounds are so mind blowing that it doesn’t translate to any marked degree. The music serves more as a vehicle for Williams to get his words and ideas in a tight and memorable package for listeners and observers.

The record begins on the eerie and creepy “Talk to Strangers” which features probably Williams’ most straight forward spoken word endeavor across the twelve tracks. The skulking piano and high pitched background vocals presents an image of being in a dank, murderous swamp waiting for something bad to happen. This leads into off-kilter guitars and heavy distorted bass on “Grippo,” and gives you the first sense of what to actually anticipate from Williams’ music. “Telegram” includes fore-fronted old school moderate punk guitar and includes this massively scary voice-altered chorus section. The song is basically about the terrible state of hip hop and soars when Williams riddles off lines like he is dictating a telegram – “Telegram to hip hop/stop/This shit has gone too far/stop/…. “Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)” features de la Rocha’s backing vocals and gyrates with seriously flanged space guitars that move back and forth across your speakers. With a seamless transition into “List of Demands (Reparations),” Williams begins with dirty bluesy vocals before the beats come in and singes your memory. “List of Demands” also includes Williams’ daughter Saturn joining in the haunting whining/crying chorus. After the less compelling “African Student Movement,” comes the fantastically upsetting yet catchy “Black Stacey.” “Black Stacey” is about Williams’ apparent self-image problem of being too black growing up in Newburgh, NY and it is impossible to get the chorus out your head. After the short faux-hard “PG,” comes the distorted bass led “Surrender (A Second to Think)” that begins slow but picks up with the inclusion of dark riffing guitars. After the off “Control Freak,” comes the other spoken word-flavored track of the record “Seaweed.” It has Williams going on through his lines with people in back doing partial scales of la’s and breaking in points for light female backing vocals from Mai Doi Todd. The record closes on the electronically-balanced and murky “Notice of Eviction.”

This latest from Saul Williams is certainly one of the most innovative and unique records of the year and re-establishes Williams as an artist standing on his own island of creativity. Take advantage of any opportunity to checking out Williams in person whether musically or in poetic form.