Lyrics Born

This deeply funky record, Lyrics Born’s first solo album, slithers down the road like a lowered deuce-and-a-quarter at midnight, with a thoughtful vibe that evokes the fine apocalyptic 1970s jams of Gil Scott-Heron and Melvin Van Peebles. Lyrics Born, a veteran of the early-1990s Davis collective SoleSides (now Quannum) when he was known as Asia Born, exhibits a contemporary attention to texture, detail and sonic density here befitting an artist steeped in hip-hop’s penchant for artful menu mixing. There are too many stellar tracks to list; this entire album flows from start to finish on a bed of clavinets, syncopated bass lines, wicked guitar loops, wikka-wikka scratching and female backup vocals, which play cat and mouse with Lyrics Born’s wry observations. It’s fatter than Junior Samples.