Modal Soul

Not as consistent as the previous album, but there are some undoubtedly iconic gems here that would ultimately define Nujabes for years to come.

The album starts off really promising and ends off quite nicely, too. But the upper-middle section of the album throws me for a bit of a loop. The melody of 'Music is Mine' is quite obnoxious. The rapping on 'Thank You' and 'Eclipse' are not bad, but they are a bit corny and on-the-nose. 'The Sign' was a bit of a waste, because the instrumental is good and I love when Pase Rock raps... yet, he wasn't rapping here. It's a long spoken word or poetry segment over an instrumental that he would've rapped amazingly on.

But after those four songs, the album gets back on track again, with some consistently beautiful productions.

While I much prefer the previous album, because of how much more consistent it is, Modal Soul does deserve its flowers and I still very much appreciate it.