Album Review: Cro-Mags - 2020
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
I’m just going to put this one out there: Harley Flanagan for Man of the Year 2020!
Not only did he come back from a twenty-year recording hiatus and land the best album of the year with In the Beginning, (spoiler alert for my 2020 top 10) but he’s just dropped another collection of songs that are equally worthy.
Rather than churn out the unused demos from the album sessions, Cro-Mags’ new E.P. is a wholly new collection of tracks, exploring a host of different ideas and themes. Only Chaos in the Streets sounds like it would sit comfortably on In the Beginning as, both musically and vocally, it is 2020’s closest moment to that collection.
Otherwise, this E.P. is a chance for Cro-Mags to show their chops and revel in the broad range of influences that have infused into their sound over the years. From the outset, there’s a hip-hop beat at the very start of the record; elsewhere, amid the ambient soundscapes of Violence of Destruction, there’s an unmistakable reggae element and the closing instrumental, Crofusion, intertwines what could be the soundtrack to a 70s Blacksploitation film with eastern melodies and phrases.
While some creators talk the talk, Cro-Mags walk the walk as 2020, in keeping with the rest of their discography, represents the sound of the street: a diverse symphony of sound and influences, voices with a thousand different accents chatter in a speech sonata that dictates the urban experience.
For all it’s diversity and merging of styles, 2020 is, at it’s heart, a crushingly heavy collection of tracks. Thick guitar delivering chunky riffs dominate every song, with machine gun drumming pounding the listener into submission as Harley’s signature bass sound holds everything together.
For the most part the vocals sit low in the mix, noticeable on tracks like Life on Earth and 2020 and this allows the music to do the talking; the title track being notable for the juxtaposition of a heavy undercurrent but with the lightest elements playing over the top.
Harley’s creative energy appears to know no bounds at the moment and he’s writing and recording like a man possessed by the Muses. Long may this continue. When the age of quarantine is finally over and the stages are set, just imagine the torrential energy that will be unleashed when Cro-Mag is able to get out and play these songs. It’ll be a truly magical time in our lives.
