Posted on 05/15/2008
Play with fire, by making it the title of your album, and you better bring the heat, or you’ll get burnt. Sadly All Natural are going to end up with their fingers slightly singed with an album that isn’t half as incendiary as they’d like you to believe.

If you’re going to focus on harking back to ‘hip hop’s aggressive boom-bap sound’ and ‘in your face’ lyricism, then you better back the braggadocio with some hot beats to prevent it from descending into all out machismo. Tracks like the organ driven “The All” manage this pretty well, but too often All Natural fall into the trap of mistaking nostalgia for trotting out well worn clichés. “Poppers pop, Breakers break” is the worst offender, with dull lyrics over a beat that won’t sustain your interest for the duration of the track, let alone a second listen. That’s not to say Elements (Fire) is all bad – it’s just runs as hot as it does cold.

You can make it a much better album by judicious employment of the skip button, allowing you to enjoy the stripped, murky Blaxploitation groove on “Backstep” and the stabbing horns on “Good Life” without being disturbed by the bland beats exhibited on “Move, Move” and “Something of Nothing”. The fire rekindles towards the end with a strong closing trio that shows more depth lyrically and musically, but whether you’ll still be listening by now is a moot point.

The hope for All Natural if they persevere with their series of albums inspired by the natural elements, is that water always beats fire. If they cut the posturing and focus on the more promising tracks on display, they should end up with a consistently appealing LP, rather than one that catches light only intermittently.

- Will Georgi