This record is a 10 to me. It's so fluid and different from track to track. Some of these rhythms and basslines with the addition of Flying Lotus on the beat has me head-bopping and groovin' like a motherfucker.
Also, Thundercat is hilarious. Listen to "Tokyo."
I haven't actually found it to be riveting in the sense that I can play it as a full album. It's more of an unpredictable trip through Thundercat's fucked up mind. Every song on its own is an awesome listen though.
I really dug this album. It's super groovy but also hilarious. Thundercat mixes emotions together so well to bring out this weird yet cool cohesive project. The only things I didn't like so much about this album was that there was more focus put on the lyrics than in past Thundercat projects. I'm not trying to say the lyrics were bad or anything (I thought they were poignant), but more so that when I listen to a Thundercat song I expect his instrumental to be front and center and his lyrics to be more on the side and understated. The other thing I had a problem with is that I can only take so much of Thundercat's falsetto vocals, and I think he falls back on them (be it as a joke or as a serious musical motif) too often on this album. Otherwise, I thought the production was fantastic and the stories as well.
I certainly agree on the falsetto thing. It has already begun to get on my nerves a little bit, more so because I think he actually can sing well enough, relative to how much vocals really matter in his music, to not have to do a weird voice in the first place. It's also possible that he has to keep the voice for instrumental reasons, since he's laying down an absurdly thick bassline and could either distract from his playing or just choke the whole song if he started singing deep too. Still really fun and interesting though.