On his 2002 debut Personal Journals, Sage Francis introduced himself as one of underground rap's great raw talents, a commanding slam-poet and earnest songwriter who distinguished himself from his closest corollary, Atmosphere's Slug, with an incisive political streak. And then his shtick got old. With each album, Sage seemed less like the sensitive friend baring his soul and more like the grown man still dwelling on middle-school injustices, and his political rants lost their nuance as they became progressively louder and angrier.
Sage's latest album, Li(fe), is a bold departure in one sense. It's his grab for the indie-rock crowd, recorded with producer Brian Deck and some of his Califone cohorts, as well as Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla, Grandaddy's Jason Lytle and the late Mark Linkous, of Sparklehorse. The players lend the record Califone's distinct rootsy stamp, piling on easy slide-guitars, banjos and accordions that couldn't be much more different from Sage's usual, confrontational funk.
It's a rich sound that Califone and Ugly Cassanova fans will recognize immediately, but it doesn't always pair gracefully with Sage's righteous raps, which for better or worse are little changed here. Sage is still capable of great storytellingopener “Little Houdini” narrates a touching parable about a prisoner who twice escapes to make peace with his dying parentsbut he's also prone to extreme didacticism, reciting lyrics that read like rejected infoshop bumper sticker slogans (“I heard God is coming and she's a screamer.”)%u2028%u2028
At its best, as on the anxious rocker “Three Sheets to the Wind” or the soulful stomp “Love the Lie,” Li(f)e taps the sugared magic of the Hood Internet's indie-rock/hip-hop mash-ups, but for all its ambitions, the record often little distinguished from the silly country-rap of Buck 65 or Everlast. It may yet be possible to produce a great album by wedding rap with indie-rock compositions, but it's doubtful Safe Francis will be the one to make it.
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