Genre : Hip Hop with a '80s Darkpop Tint
Origin : United States
This review starts out with a verbatim quotation of the mini-biography this review order came with.
"A.N.O. is an underground artist from Virginia that released his first project in the winter of 1998. A.N.O. has always stuck to the creed of original music to compliment his light shallow voice bringing his style to life. His career followed a long collection of solo and group projects which from 2006 to recent have been published. He took a 4 year hiatus after his 2008 release titled "Yellow". Experimenting in various genres he released various projects under the stage name of Leon Coles. Returning to the scene again under Ain't No Other with his release "The Album I Threw Away" in 2012, A.N.O. spent the next couple of years touring with The Outer Circle until the 2014 release "Never Really Broke".
Read on to know more about the disc.
Never Really Broke is more of a mature and morose status report than a declaration of glock-traditional subterfuge heft. The rapping style of A.N.O. consistently refrains from the ultra-orthodox method of conveying the message with extreme emotional peaks included in the delivery - he instead gives you the regular speaking voice he would talk to you in a conversation with, and this is a rare precedent in a genre in which marketing your ego twice as big as you can actually comprehend it to be, is among your foremost priorities and assumed obligations. An "obligation" that seems to go out of fashion, thanks to the efforts of artists coming from the same or similar school of thought A.N.O. sounds to be a full fledged representative of.
I'd go as far as to claim that these are the hip hop records of the first massive video game generation, - past Space Invaders era, bitches - as A.N.O.'s first and foremost concern is to give you a well sculpted, competently realized fun time through sounds, and not to convince the planet population of the desirable qualities and potentialities he possesses as a scary man with a van of miniguns. Without particular redundant effect wizardry or aggression being presented in the context of the most essential component - the rapping voice -A.N.O. hopefully will prove to be a trend-setter in the propagation of your NORMAL speaking voices, I'm looking at you, other hip hop prospects! If you want to be a powerful hip hop artist, maybe one already is lurking in you, - or maybe he is just a Legend - only you'd need to discover the related truth as A.N.O. took the effort to do that.
I dig the global vibe-quality of the overall "Never Really Broke" experience, as it radiates an urge to offer meticulously researched variants of a certain type of '80s darkpop ear-candy, - the backrdops oftentimes remind me of splendid Swiss synthpop duo "Yello" [the track "Taught You That" gives me "The Rhythm Divine" vibes, for example] - a direction that not only gets fraternized during the disc, it also is showcasing a solid grip both on fun high frequency ornamentics and monumental harmonic structures. The opening track sports such a superb/dark melodic hook that it enjoys the instant direct approval of "teh" Depeche Mode collective, and I wouldn't have been able to write this down had it not be the truth. Truth is truth because it can withstand your very best assault.
As a full value statement, the disc emerges both consistent and colorful. The morosity, the moody-ness, a certain poker face feel: always is maintained, yet the album never strays into the territories of flat out gloom. Who has the time for misery when there are women around, (and alive) anyway. The tracks manage to come across as soulful combinations of inventive playfulness and a dark/hilarious '80s tint that permeates the whole record as its pretty much glorious identity. Who wouldn't be familiar with the superb ancient hip hop song "Holiday", and frequent are the times the record reminds you of the mere VIBE of that classic song: "Cook for Me - feat. Trakz", for example - but rest assured that the disc is not misogynistic at all. If a woman cooks for you and you can smile during the process, it indeed is fucking badass. In fact, the disc is wise enough to subliminally admit that hip hop, like pretty much all music worth listening to, is happening FOR the woman.
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