This album was released on April 14th this year. Before listening to this project, I was completely unfamiliar with El Michels Affair. I still don’t really know much about who they are. I don’t even know if it’s one person or if they’re a group. The reason I chose to check this out was because of Black Thought obviously. He’s one of my favorite MCs of all time, so I knew I was going to dig this album to some extent. It ended up exceeding my expectations though. I know this might sound crazy to some of y’all, but I actually like this album more than Cheat Codes, and it’s honestly not even close. I think this shit is fucking amazing, and it’s my current album of the year. Let me tell y’all why…

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The album begins with Grateful, which I believe was released as the first single.

I love the production here. It sounds really cinematic to me. I also love Black Thought’s slow paced flow. The song’s got a really straightforward structure, but it doesn’t feel incomplete or anything. It’s just two verses with a short break in between. The first verse is fire.

Makin' fiends, influencin' people, Dale Carnеgies
With big dreams to get rich quick that fail horribly
Now thеy play the avenue of Amsterdam
With other pickpockets and thieves and gambling mans
And they just come at all the noodles where resistance is futile
Business as usual to blow out your wig like French Poodles
Never endin' pursuit of the American dream
Winner takes everything is still a regular theme

Once you’ve heard the first verse you pretty much know what the entire song sounds like, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think some more variation could’ve pushed this to the next level. It’s ever so slightly dry. I still love it though. The rapping is too good for me to not love this song. The second verse is even better than the first one in my opinion. The writing here is fantastic.

One for the will of man, two for the kilogram
Three for the cold killer who can still be a millionaire
Fillin' the Frigidaire, big plates and silverware
Where everybody eat except the one who was ill-prepared
Due to circumstances, there's no more chances
We was raised by wolves, grizzly bears, and panthers
It's wild, yo, I'm surprised we ain't grown no antlers
The whole house is fucked like Jo Jo Dancers

The song’s dope as hell. It’s followed by the title track, Glorious Game, which is even better.

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This song is fucking amazing. The production is absolutely stunning. The beat is gorgeous. Obviously the rapping from Thought is on point as well. There’s really not a single aspect of this song that I don’t love. The first verse is fire. I love Thought’s flow and vocal delivery.

Gloves and mask off, time to blast off
Baton I'll pass off, rhyme your ass off
If we clash, I'll haul the trash off
Then haul the cash off and ball in Nassau
That's all, it ain't too much talk
All y'all chumps, it ain't enough chalk
Y'all thought the name was just Thought?
C'mon, I'm too strong for y'all to cut short
You see light like mine once a lifetime
When somе young gun becomes an icon
But somehow thеy'll cut down the flight time
Unless they send that heat down the pipeline

The sung hook from KIRBY is really awesome too. Their vocals sound really soulful. The second verse is just as fantastic as the first one, if not better.

No gas, I'm high in octane
Which icon am I if not flames?
Goddammit, guess who not lame
And locked the block down before the blockchain

I feel like this is probably the most accessible song on the album. It’s got a really nice melodic hook, a beautiful instrumental, and a pretty sick flow from Black Thought. The guitar that comes in for the outro of the song sounds absolutely phenomenal. I live for this shit. This is easily one of the best songs of the year. I think it’s dope as fuck. It’s followed by I’m Still Somehow. Once again, the production is beautiful. The instrumental here is just really pretty. The entire song is pretty much just one long verse from Black Thought. It’s fire. He killed this shit. The lyrical content about the struggles he goes through as a black man had me hooked.

Bein' a Black man's been a job
Look at the loved ones I have lost
Give me a CAT scan, I can't stand
When the drug starts wearin' off
What they would call goin' through withdrawal
Nothin' to fear but fear is all
Nothin' to board these spirits off
Better prepare for a tear to fall
I say a prayer for a miracle
Pinnin' a parable to share with y'all
It's about one crown who was run down
Somehow still standin' tall

I also love the line where he rhymes “vibin’” with “psilocybin,” even though he pronounces it wrong. He says “philocybin” instead of “psilocybin” for some reason. I’m not sure what caused that. He goes on to rhyme it with Phyllis Hyman, which is pretty awesome. The song’s got a very straightforward structure, but everything here is so well done that I don’t even mind. The production is fantastic, and Thought killed it. The song’s dope as hell. Track 4 is entitled Hollow Way. My favorite part of this song is just the weird ass hook. Well, I don’t know if I should refer to it as a hook. It’s just a weird ass screeching sound that comes in before each verse. It’s really bizarre sounding. I love it though. It’s really cool. The opening verse from Thought is fantastic. I had a fervent reaction when I first caught the hopscotch line.

And when it's hawk out, you know to watch what you talk 'bout
Them marks is not about pride, and if you was outside, you made it home before it was dark out
To play the couch with pop-pop, the smart route
'Cause it's not for hopscotch when that chalk out
And it's not the pop-lock when they dance on you
It ain't a pat on the back when they hands on you and sickin' they mans on you

I think the verse just gets better and better as it progresses. This is one of my favorite verses on the album, which is saying a lot.

A significant amount of trauma'll change you
To keep gettin' in and out of drama'll drain you
For what it's came to, I ain't gon' say that I blame you
When you angry, ain't no management to complain to
When a personal hell is uniquely spelled
Out of shotgun shells from a DP-12
Is it the monster from within or nine-inch nails
That make us constantly defend or hurt ourselves?

I really like how the instrumental switches up and gets more uptempo for the second verse. The lyrical content about street shit is really well executed. The way he ended this track is fire too. I love the closing quatrain.

I seen cats in the cab with the gats in the bag
Pull up on you smokin' a short, then ask for a drag
Then attack you for bad, do a snatch, then a stab
Then collapse through the cracks like rats in a lab

Again, this song has a very straightforward structure, but the rapping and strange production are simply too captivating for me to not love it. I think this shit is dope as hell. The following track is called Protocol, and it features an artist named Son Little. I absolutely love the breezy, melodic production. The opening verse is really great too. I love the line where he said he fell in love with the language like a hopeless romantic. Same. Anyway, the one aspect of this song that I’m not crazy about is the hook from Son Little. It’s not that his vocals are bad or anything. I just don’t really care for the melody itself personally. It’s not like Son Little only tarnished this song though because I like his background vocals during the second verse a lot. The verse itself is fire.

Sometimes they try to soften the blow, but it's not as often
This life'll have you starvin' and sufferin' from heat exhaustion
Upon the line, I teeter, it's harder for me to cross it
Unless the universe take a hold of my hand and force it
The protocol is overhaul, show me what you zonin' on
How you gon' get in touch with your spirit when its phone is off?
How they back you into a corner, then hold that over y'all?
Then expect me to show this love that wasn't shown to y'all?
Signage on the closin' doors said, "This ain't even home to y'all"
Now I see that more and more, so sayonara, au revoir
Just get me to that pyramid my flyin' saucer floatin' towards
I'm laser focusin' on doin' somethin' on my own accord

This is one of the weaker songs on the album in my opinion, but I still really fuck with it. I think it’s dope. The next song is entitled The Weather. This one grew on me a little bit. I love it even more now than I did when I first heard it. It’s one of my favorite songs of the year now. The soulful production is really pretty, and Thought sounds amazing over it. The way the beat & Thought’s flow get faster in the middle of the verse is really awesome. I love how descriptive Black Thought is on this song too. His rapping about the environment in which he grew up had me hooked.

Runners over the shag carpet, I'm not feeling
Wood paneling on the walls up to the drop ceiling
All the furniture draped in thick transparent layers of vinyl
All the chairs, the sofa, the record player kept Mahalia spinning
Minnie be grinning knowin' I done spent a day of penny pinching and sinning
See her in the kitchen cooking fish or chicken depending on what day it is
If I'm staying there, then yeah, that's just the way it is
If she say it is, in Minnie crib, the time froze
After sundown, you keep them curtains and the blinds closed
Watch how far back the La-Z-Boy recline goes
Peppermints in the Lazy Susan, never mind those
TV on whether or not somebody watching it
The floor model was broke, portable on top of it
The last bastion of hope to document the era
Was Kodacolor imagery and memories put together

This is yet another song with a very straightforward structure. It’s just one long ass verse. The tempo fluctuates throughout the runtime of the song though, so that helps to keep things interesting. This is another one of my favorite verses on the album. The song’s dope as fuck. Same goes for the following track, That Girl.

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The main reason I love this song so much is because of the weird hook. That vocal sample is really beautiful, yet kind of eerie in a way. The instrumental is really pretty during the hook too, but it gets a lot harder and more rugged sounding during the actual verses. As the title kind of hints, this song is about Black Thought’s significant other. I think this track contains some of the most poetic lyricism on the whole album. He killed this shit.

A queen nightingale and her wings whisper the sky a tale
The sun and moon are her biggest fans, they send her mail
Skin caramel, a magnetism none could parallel
From Venus to Vеnezuel', they call hеr Miss Michelle
Her beauty truly a treasure, her laughter was a song
No way I could ever be right if lovin' her was wrong
There was times my character might have been less than strong
She would leave, but she'd always come back where she belong

The second verse is just as fantastic as the first one. I really love this track. It’s another one of my favorite songs of the year, and a major highlight for me on this album. I think it’s dope as fuck. Track 8 is another major highlight entitled I Would Never. On my first listen of the project, this was my favorite track. The main reason is that the production is absolutely fucking incredible. This might be my favorite beat that I’ve heard this year. When it comes to the actual rapping, I definitely think Black Thought did a great job. However, it’s really the instrumental that makes this song stand out so much to me. The rapping is still great though. It’s actually better than great. It’s fantastic. The second verse is a lot more interesting to me than the first one. Not that the first one was bad. I just think the second one is amazing.

When I didn't have no time to listen and that old time religion
Didn't have no competition, my life was long division
Starin' at four corners, I might as well have been born in prison
Within arm's reach of my porch, it was on a sibling
We suffer from preconditions, strugglin' to beat the system
Climbin' to reach the pinnacle only to meet suspicion
Tryna stand on your principles after bein' forbidden
Or go against the invincible algorithm of livin'

I think this might still be my favorite song on the album honestly. The other songs grew on me a lot, but I loved this one immediately, and I still think it’s dope as fuck. The following track is another major highlight entitled Alone. This song has my favorite hook on the album. It’s amazing. I don’t know who the uncredited vocalist is, but they sound absolutely phenomenal. The production on this track is pretty incredible too. There are a lot of different instruments involved here. I really love the lyrical content as well. I feel like this song would cheer me up if I was really depressed.

When the world feels like it's chiseled out of stone
Remember it's a different time in another zone
And if you can't see the poetry, you are a poem
Bless the child that's got a home, you're not alone

Fuck, man. This might be the best song on the album. It’s probably my second favorite. It’s definitely top 3. I think this shit is amazing. The following track is called Miracle. This song’s pretty fire. It’s basically another love song, and while I don’t think it’s as superb as That Girl, it’s still pretty awesome.

Tryna stand a chance, layin' out what I would wear for you
On the night before I saw you just to be prepared for it
I keep the conversation inside of my head
Or you wrote your phone number in my palm, now I'm clairvoyant
I could see your heart was right where Cupid had his spare pointed
Upstarts in the blowout, no way that we could know how
Thirty years into the future, it ain't even safe to go out
With all my fliers gone, the sauna can't show up to show out
It's to the past I dedicate what I'm about to pour out

Dat production doe. The beat is fire. This is another track with a really straightforward structure. It’s just two verses with a short break in between. I think a really great hook probably could’ve pushed this song to the next level, but I still love it as it is because the beat is fantastic, and same goes for the rapping. This one is dope as hell. The penultimate track is Glorious Game (Reprise), and I think it’s probably the best interlude I’ve heard so far this year. The instrumental is a more chilled out version of the beat from the original song. Black Thought is completely absent, but the hook from KIRBY is still intact. This beat sounds like driving through Vinewood Hills at night. I love it. I have no complaints with this track at all. I’m glad it’s here. The closing track is entitled Alter Ego, and it’s another one of my favorite songs of the year. Once again, I was enthralled by the instrumental as well as Black Thought’s poetic, personal lyricism.

Round the age of thirty-five I began to lose my drive
I was wasted, chasin' time as if I was losin' my mind
If you're listenin', there's a way to make it to that other side
When you're driftin' and you need somethin' upliftin' in your lives
Take my eyes, all this blue and black and ebony inside
They done cried 'cause they seen too much to ever be surprised
Then they dried, used to be so full of light and damn near died
Searchin' for thеm whens and whys, tyin' up loose ends and odds

Another reason why I love this song so much is because of the weird ass hook. The vocal melody and instrumental variation here sounds really haunting and kind of sad. It’s interesting because the rest of the song actually sounds pretty upbeat. The second verse is even better than the first one to me.

When I was runnin' on empty, that emptiness would tempt me
And I felt like everything, even my shadow, worked against me
I sit there in the mirror, starin' at myself intensely
Thinking, "I should act my age, shit, I'm approachin' half a century"
Accidentally, I be mentally taken to my point of entry
And shown the bigger picture like I'd watched a documentary
I decided if I'm ridin', I'm gon' do it positively
Undeniably, sobriety's influenced my delivery

I think this is a really awesome way to close the album. I have no gripes with this track at all. I think it’s amazing.

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^{This album is fucking incredible. It’s my favorite album of the year so far, and if that ends up changing any time soon then this will go down as one of my favorite years in recent memory. In fact, I’m comfortable calling this album one of my favorites of all time. It’s basically flawless to me. I kinda don’t know why it isn’t getting nearly as much attention as Cheat Codes because I like this one a lot better. I guess it probably has something to do with the lack of rap features. However, if you ask me, the album without Russ is the better of the two. Not to be a hater. But yeah, the production, flows, lyricism, hooks, and even the sequencing are all on point. I don’t have any major complaints about this project. It’s easily my favorite Black Thought album. In fact, I think I like this even more than any of The Roots’ albums, which I know may be controversial, but I have to be honest. I couldn’t be more satisfied with this one. Do not sleep on this shit. It’s dope as fuck.}

Favorite Song: I Would Never
Least Favorite Song: Protocol

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Watch the video below for more thoughts on this album.