If 7G was the vast orchard, the diminutively-titled Apple is its ultimate issue, the most fully realized version yet of Cook's iconoclastic take on pop, polished to a sheen.
Slimmed down to forty minutes split between ten tracks, Apple has the feel of one cohesive whole when compared to 7G’s daunting monolith.
In the way that 7G meticulously unpicked Cook’s innards so fans could see the master’s mind at work, Apple weighs out the specifics and pours them into the meting pot.
Where 7G was sprawling and without a discernible single, Apple is crisp, concise and gloriously slick.
Happily bridging the gap between synthetic and organic, Apple is one of Cook's most satisfying obliterations of the borders between genres, authenticity, and artifice.
At times, its tonal shifts cause whiplash, but the real magic appears when Cook manages to coalesce these two sides in the same song.
Apple ... is a staggering and potent amalgamation of numerous genre influences, but it also has moments of information overload, where its boundarylessness becomes too much.
Cook is clearly a master of sonic manipulation, but at times Apple proves that the old-fangled classical skills aren’t beyond him either.
With Apple A. G. Cook shows plenty of potential, but ultimately more consistency is needed with his songwriting if he is to really make his mark.
Despite being a quarter of 7G's length, Apple is somehow the less consistent album.
Apple is a vacuous waste of time that makes whatever cohesion, credibility and engagement he generated with 7G seem like an extended bit with a 40 minute punchline.
#14 | / | Dazed |