Posted on 04/21/2009
40Love makes nighttime tunes, but these are no lullabies. Shaped by broodingly bubbling synths and ethereal hooks, sung by one of hip-hop’s most alluring sirens, Bangerang! is tailor made for nocturnal sojourns, preferably through urban streets, on a sticky summer night. Though the sophomore effort from the San Francisco crew may lack a true summer banger, it succeeds in setting a distinct mood, with a pensive, yet loose vibe, and exploiting all of its textures through the course of sixteen taut tracks.

The star of the show is clearly Haze, the group’s lone female voice. Ably crooning lush choruses and spitting impeccably timed couplets, Haze possesses the rare combination of poise, swagger and sultry mystique that won fiercely loyal fan bases for Lauryn Hill, Mystic and Jean Grae. Whether cooing breezy jazz flirtations on the album’s intro, dropping fierce braggadocio on “How Bad To You Want It (Water),” or spitting rapid fire vignettes of inner-city struggle on “Limelight,” she is the tone setter, providing the tracks with both their warmth and their urgency.

On first listen, it’s all too easy to say the girl should go solo. But while the guys aren’t exactly a fountain of quotables, they contribute too much to the group’s distinctive sound to warrant a Menudo-like vanishing act. As a producer, Mikos serves up warm drums with ample space in which his mercurial synths can leisurely unfurl. Meanwhile, the aggressive flow of G-Off offers a nice shot of adrenaline on the mostly mid-tempo tracks.

While the consistency of mood and atmosphere will likely keep fingers off the skip button, Bangerang delivers surprisingly few standout tracks. Sonically, the album plays out almost like a movie score, effective at establishing a feeling, but ultimately all too content to settle into the background. Perhaps the record would demand more attention if the lyrical identity of the group were as pronounced as the musical one. On too many songs, the three MCs appear to be on different pages, never building toward a coherent whole. It’s no coincidence that the album’s standout moment is “Ghost,” where a focused and vivid guest verse from Black Spade lays a strong blueprint on which G-Off and Haze expand.

Bangerang probably won’t be that disc that makes a permanent home in your deck for the remainder of the year, but at some point, everybody finds themselves taking that aimless ride on a lonely night, and at that moment, you’ll be glad to have it in the glove compartment.

- Jeff Harvey