One of the most authentic voices in hip hop, Slaine has delivered a dark, brooding and brutal album with his latest release ‘The Things We Can’t Forgive‘. The album is largely produced by regular collaborator and sounding board The Arcitype who puts together a visceral and haunting soundscape for Slaine to deliver some of the most introspective bars of his career to date.
Having dropped ‘One Day‘ back in 2019, listeners had already been invited inside the mind of Slaine, but his latest release is by far his most emotional, vulnerable and mature work. It explores the gamut of emotion from love and hate, grief, loss, joy and everything in between. It’s an enthralling rollercoaster ride into the depths of our (or Slaine’s) true being. ‘The Things We Can’t Forgive‘ is certainly an album as deep as the title suggests.
On first listen, this one just hit different. Maybe it’s the current state of the world, maybe it’s due to the seemingly never-ending coronavirus and the lockdowns and crippling anxiety people are experiencing – maybe it’s a little of both. I’d go one step further though and suggest that this album feels so authentic because of the relevance it holds for the average listener. Not everyone will have experienced drugs but they’ll have had some exposure to addiction. They may not know death, but they’ll know loss and grief.
Circling back to the production now, and the chemistry between Slaine and The Arcitype (and Statik Selektah who graces the album for the title track) is unwavering. This dynamic has such an authentic connection that you’d never know if the lyrics were written first or vice versa – each element fits hand in glove to deliver a knockout album.
Bangers: When the War Ends, Wrath & Pride, Not Enough, The Things We Can’t Forgive
Score: 9.5 / 10. This is the album that Eminem wishes he made. That’s not a comparison of the two artists, but having gotten sober, fought addiction and loss, Slaine delivers an introspectively brilliant album, over modern yet authentic boom bap hip hop production. This is going to stay in rotation for a very long time.
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