Test Spin: Slum Village

On their sophomore LP, Slum Village tries to capture an audience whose taste lies somewhere in between Jurassic 5 and their fellow Detroit bad boy Eminem. Trinity feels like an oxymoron; the overall atmosphere from the music, though anything but 1st class, is certainly positive. In terms of vocals, much of the album has as many holes as Swiss cheese. None of the group members’ voices stand out and their mundane lyrics are accompanied by needless cursing — sounding out of place most of the time.

While there are several good tracks on the LP, each characterized by groovy beats and soulful singing, the 27 track album unfortunately is also full of songs which my ears could have done without, especially “80’s Skit” and the four blank tracks — what a waste of my time! Many of the tunes, namely “What Is This” and “Tainted,” lack the thought and effort of the stronger moments (ironically the titles are quite descriptive).

Trinity is definitely misleading in the beginning. The intro and the first few songs have a totally different vibe than the rest of the album and with few exceptions it’s all downhill from there. Overall, although the finished product sounds as though Slum Village is trying way too hard to be something they clearly are not, Trinity makes a decent background album if one doesn’t pay too much attention to it. Trinity gets a “download–the-songs-you-like rating” because it’s definitely not worth its $17 price. These guys should listen to what they did with their few good songs and try to climb out of their slum.

Archived article by Paul Albini