3 out of 5

Producer: Rick Rubin

Label: American

Why did I end up listening to Saul Williams, initially?  Slam poetry annoys me.  The movie he was in – Slam – annoyed me.  I worked at Tower at the time of the album’s release and though Saul was totally a nice guy (from the 5-seconds of non-interaction I had with him during an in-store performance), the crowd of hip-hop hipsters he attracted, plus the swoony cover to this album… well, why?

Because some of his songs are really good, is the simple answer.  We had the album on repeat in the ol’ shop and all of the expected indulgences are there – angry black man, rambling slam nonsense that’s half-stupid, thumping Rick Rubin beats and heavy guitars – but some really tight songs would just bubble up into the mix.  Whether it was Saul learning to trim his own fat, or whether it was shape given by Trent Reznor (or a combination of both), Mr. Williams wasn’t able to fully commit – in my opinion – to a whole album of goodness until Niggy Tardust.  So especially at Amethyst, when he was an up and coming kid, under the indulgent wing of Rubin, things are still massively flawed.  Lead track La La La is when things are at their best – Saul’s lyrics are most suited to angry spitting, but it needs an anchor of a strong chorus and strong beat to not just turn into slammy shit (such as the follow-up track, Penny for a Thought).  Saul’s lyrics are most pitifully suited to his “love” songs, whether they’re about his daughter, or various girlfriends, or twisting his rhetoric into loving life because he has an active brain.  These are generally wicked cheesy, or devolve into wicked cheesy, or don’t even get the chance to devolve because they start with silly sentiments.

Since Saul was / is known for slam, Rubin gives him the space to do that on album, sprucing it up with his thick production sound where appropriate, but otherwise leaving these massive gaps of lyrical noodling on album, which slow the overall pace down (since the beats tend to sit in the background for these and not drive the tracks) and really, unfortunately, separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, making the trip to the last few tracks definitely feel like a trudge.