Album Review: Angel Haze - Back to the Woods
By Thalia Badio, Contributor
[Island; 2015]
Rating: 2.5/5
Key Tracks: “Dark Place,” “Exposed”
In Back to the Woods, Angel Haze is figurativly returning to listeners from the heat of the ranks, from the confines of fear and self-restraint, to emerge victorious, and this album is the warning left behind. Several of the tracks reminisce Haze’s state of confusion and period of sacrilegious revival. Haze raps, “I’m too far from my faith to rely on a God / I’m too far from my brain / I’m too out of my mind.”
Back to the Woods also features Haze’s huskier and more menacing sound. Many of the tracks are filled with sustained and rolling percussion, reinforcing the battle anthem nature of the album, as if Haze is leading their fans alongside them to war. Unfortunately this sound does at times get repetitive, as does the message of each of the songs, which mostly deal with “me against society, me against the world” ideals.
Occasionally this theme is broken and Haze gets more personal and articulate, diving into their past and shedding light on the recent and public battle Haze has had both emotionally and mentally. Haze raps, “I wasn’t trying to desert you, no I was corrupted and desperate for change.”
One of the best features on the album is Haze’s own voice, which has been used only sparingly in previous projects. Some of the quality brought by Haze’s voice is detracted from by cliché, half-hearted lyrics, such as in the song “Moonrise Kingdom,” named after the 2012 Wes Anderson film. “They don’t know nothing, nothing about us, nothing ‘bout love.”
This album ultimately isn’t a reflection of Angel Haze’s potential. Haze is a relatively new artist and still perfecting a matured and developed sound, which this album fails to reflect. This project also failed to feature some of Haze’s characteristic metaphors and puns featured in other songs, something essential to Haze’s appeal.
