Worth listening to, but not all of its experiments are as rewarding.
Long-winded...? Some of the nocturnal songs make me sleepy and the album wanders in between skits and some other collections of low-key samples.
'Is something interesting going to happen soon?' (me listening to The Shape of Jazz to Come)
Nice grooves on both sides, but none of the vocals do something to take the compositions to new places.
This Weather Report album genuinely stand out from the rest of jazz and fusion albums I've heard. It's well-structured, differently textured and to the point.
If I have a hot take about TPAB is that I really love the jazzy tracks more than the hard hitting ones. My fav tracks are For Free?, Institutionalized, For Sale?, Momma and You Ain't Gotta Lie. My least favorites are Hood Politics, Complexion, Blacker the Berry and Mortal Man (the musical part; outro was awesome). But it's just nitpicking, the album is a modern masterpiece.
As is tradition: DOOM drops an hour of good music with a pseudonym.