Arrested Development
Since The Last Time

Here they are again.

Ten years after disbanding, they return with an album that wipes away the time passed with a multicolored brush.
They were part of the creative soul, militant with imagination (remember De La Soul?), of a phenomenon that has taken on other faces, other identities, other poses. And today it rarely manages to pique my curiosity.
But back then, if you listened to the new black music, to that melting pot where the roots of blues, soul, and funk simmered together with the fruits of rap and the new black sounds that emerged in the '80s, from the unstable mixture that bubbled, the sound of this band emanated like a spicy fragrance, standing out due to a freshness and richness of ideas immediately recognizable.
I liked Arrested Development.
“3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days In The Life Of...”, their formidable debut, but also the very respectable “Zingalamaduni” from '94, still sound great today and periodically they return for a spin in my player.
I immediately adored the simple magic of tracks like “Mr. Wendal”, perhaps their most well-known hit, “Tennessee,” “People Everyday.” I appreciated the positive and radiant attitude that animated even the many tracks traversed by political and social themes, especially related to the dynamics within the black community.

The other side of hip hop, illuminated by a sun that the narrow perspectives, diamond-studded, the epic of the ghetto, and the ostentation of gangsta rap have never seen.
And that sun still warms, even illuminating the 14 tracks of “Since the Last Time.”
A warmth of colors, a light of warmth, vibrations, and energy.
There is the usual versatile profusion of ideas, the rich network of interweavings between roots and the present, woven into the refined care of arrangements.
There is a delicious and abundant array of sounds, timbres, and changing moods.
No revolution, no unpredictable turn, but a reconfirmation of an attitude and a style. Which can generate disappointment for some, but also the pleasure of discovery for all those who don’t know them.

So let's listen…
The retro taste, managed with class, that dresses the opening title track, seems to indicate one of the coordinates of this new guise of the combo.
But the irony on certain Rap, in “Miracles” (where Speech promises to write a song in the future where they too will swagger, boasting) confirms the sharp and ironic spirit, not at all diplomatic, that moves them.
“Heaven” is slow, funky, and sexy, “classic.”
And right after comes the "ethnic" flavor combined with the refined funk&soul treatment of “Sao Paolo”: traversed by the effective alternation and intertwining between Speech's voice and the female ones, it is the most atypical track on the album.
It flows pleasantly even in the less memorable episodes, still above the average of a sea of productions that invade the airwaves. Sounds always spot-on, great attention to detail and everything sounds very “natural.”
“Stand” is certainly not a masterpiece, but even just the small theme that runs behind the voices is enough to save it from anonymity.
And “It's Time” brings back to the debut days, to that undefined atmosphere, cwith that slightly “off-key” melody, as if dreamed on sun-drenched days.
The more creative and bizarre soul, instead, refers to “Inner City” with highly effective breaks and samples, while the rhythm that drives the explicit confession of “I Know I'm Bad” is relentless and contagious, followed by another typical Arrested song: sound jokes, choruses hinting at a nursery rhyme, in “I Got The Feeling.”
And if in the twist of “Down and Dirty” you seem to hear clear traces of Outkast, well, you're not wrong, except for the inversion of the terms ('cause it's Outkast who owe something to them, and not vice versa): but here the treatment is light where the grandchildren would certainly have taken advantage of the idea by pumping it to the extreme.
“Nobody Believes Me” closes the album with the still urgent pace of rap, rhythmically on percussion, on which the feline melody traced by the female voice sneaks in, packaging another excellent song. (Possibly no one believes her? I'd believe her even if I knew for sure she was lying...)
Oh yeah.

Despite their enigmatic name, this return seems to confirm that the development of the excellent collective of musicians from Georgia has not stopped at all.
And if during autumn you feel like a dose of warmth, an addition of luminous energy, try relying on Arrested Development.
Who knows, you might find yourself dancing to the notes of “Since The Last Time.”