Tuka blends rap, soul, and some electronic elements together to create Life Death Time Eternal, a progressive album that attempts to induce a sense of existentialism in the listeners while promoting a YOLO mentality. I’m going to start off by saying that I was not impressed by the songs that focused too heavily on rap. Not because of my bias but the themes presented in those songs were too contrasting from all of the love songs and themes of existentialism and equality. Perhaps the songs like “Yeah Right” were created to endorse hedonism because, hell, we’re all going to die anyways, but they lacked any sort of emotional cues to suggest this, thus rendering them out-of-place (my apologies for sounding morbid). Tracks like “Right By You” are admirable because of how they use the hip hop and soul elements in a happy-go-lucky way that builds upon the theme of life by promoting being a good member of society.
When this album does shine, it shines because of its catchy hooks and good production quality. Though this album does suffer dynamically at times, the choral segment in “Nirvana” and the funky guitar riffs in “My Star” hit all of the right frequencies and fill up just the right amount of space. “My Star” is easily the track to be talked about. The chorus is incredibly sing-along-able; the tempo encourages listeners to jam out; and, as I previously mentioned, that funky guitar riff really gives the song a pop. When the dance-able beats fade away, the album takes a turn to the more solemn side of life and churns out songs of varying listen-ability.
Life Death Time Eternal has some rough edges, but its redeeming factors are too fresh for me to tell everyone to ignore this album. On the contrary, I’d encourage people to indulge themselves in one or two tracks from the first half of the album. “LDTE” and “My Star” are songs I’d especially recommend, just be wary of the few outliers.
Recommended If You Like: Flying Lotus (Sort of. Not really. Well..?)
Recommended Tracks: 6 (My Star), 1 (L.D.T.E.), 7 (State of Mind), 5 (Nirvana), 4 (Tattoo), 10 (You)
Do Not Play: 9 (Yeah Right)
Written by Shane Blair on 09/30/15