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 - When life gives you lemons... you listen to Amtosphere...Ok... straight up... this is Atmosphere in one of its finest forms... you can here the maturity and development of a group that has been in the business for as long as they have... Though this time around its not for the hooks and break beats such as "Stricly Leakage" or their "Sad Clown Bad Season" albums were... this album is more for slugs amazing story telling ability... and his inexplicable way of being able to paint the song in your mind with what he says... with that being said... Atmosphere comes out on top this year as one of hip-hop's most influential groups and albums to date... with its raw musical prowess with the likes of "You", "The Waitress", "Like The Rest of Us", and "Guarantees" as well as the smoothed out sounds of "Yesterday", "Dreamer", "Shoulda Known", and "Wild Wild Horses"... this is album is a big pick me up for the year... and its Atmosphere... just a ten letter word... enough said... enjoy... Rating:  - Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons... 8.5/10The innovative duo of Slug and Ant that makes up indie-rap pioneers Atmosphere has never been afraid to scare away the mainstream. When Life Gives You Lemons opens up with the classiest piano line this side of Norah Jones and an unadorned drum beat, the spotlight squarely on the two rappers' effortless flow and city-street lyrics. Needless to say, it sounds nothing like on contemporary rap radio. The focus is on Ant and Slug's gritty, industrial-colored lyrics and simple, rhythmic flow, telling black-and-white stories of crime, drugs, the projects, and any number of other things that influenced the two as they grew up in Minneapolis. "Dreamer" brings out the woodwinds and horns in a catchy fable about teen pregnancy while "The Waitress" wallows in funky bass and a bird-like flute while it unweaves a story about its subject. While occasionally the duo's unremarkable voices tend to blur together and the lyrical matter is unrelenting, the ingenious production keeps things from going stale. Neither is as technically talented as rappers like Nas or Twista, neither boasts the advanced studio wizardry of producers like Kanye West or Timbaland, and neither indulges in gangster posing like Young Jeezy or 50 Cent, but Atmosphere's unique combination of realism and straight-to-the-point beats makes their latest another gem in a long line of excellent underground releases. Rating: - New FANJust recently got into the music of atmosphere, a friend gave me a mixed cd with one of there songs on it and have loved them ever since. I only have 3 albums but this is my favorite so far!! And I have to love that they are from Minnesota!! They have to be great if they are from MN, aren't we all...lol! I can't say it is the best one they have done because I don't know all of them, but it was flipping awesome!! Rating:  - worst atmosphere album EVEROnly songs on this album that I gave a 5/5 star rating was 1, 7, 9, 10. I gave 2, 4, 6, 14, 15 4/5 stars. On most tracks either the rhymes shine or the beats shine but hardly both at the same time which really creates a 5 star track, have to have balance. Now that atmosphere has created their worst album, in my opinion, and still got 3 stars has a lot to say about how good they really are BUT you can only survive on past musical accomplishments for so long. For some reason ants production and slugs rhymes just werent all there..getting old maybe. Rating: - Too underwhelming.I, like many cats from Minneapolis who are both die-hard Atmosphere fans & MC's ourselves, waited for months for this CD. Copped it at the midnight release at Fifth Element, followed the promo campaign up until the 22nd, & even decorated parts of MCTC with Atmosphere flyers. However, I was completely let down by this disc in its entirety. There's not one track on here that impressed me, & only a couple did I really enjoy. It's not so much that Slug's change in delivery is bad (I do enjoy the singing, no matter how technically un-sound he may be), & I much prefer my hip hop with beats & a DJ, none of this full-band re-creation of samples & sounds thing (Guarantees was an exception to the rule, mind you), I just found this CD to be dull, mundane, & underwhelming. Probably had my hopes too high & expected too much, but up 'til this one, Slug & Ant had never let me down. Gets 3 on the strength of it being Atmosphere & they can do much better than this. Maybe next time they'll show up.
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