The New Danger is more than just Mos Def bugging out in a studio. "The Easy Spell" is hard, freaky funk courtesy of his hard-rock side project, Black Jack Johnson, while "Sunshine" is a psychedelic roots winner produced by Kanye West. Then there's the nine-minute opus "Modern Marvel" in which Mos Def builds to an epiphany over a reverberating sample of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On": "If Marvin was alive now/Wow, what would I say to him/Global imprisonment, sickness, indifference/When he said, 'Save the babies,' was we listening?"
It's a testament to Mos Def's power as a conceptualist that he comes close to articulating his vision. Yet, barring moments of clarity such as "Modern Marvel," many songs just meander into rambling, freestyle-like raps. On "Life Is Real," he tailors a host of rhymes around the same end words, rapping "My whole life is real/Morning, noon, and night is real/When I spit, what I write is real." The effect would be kinetic if he were flowing on a hit such as Busta Rhymes' "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See." But the music pleases sporadically, too often mimicking Mos Def's own vocal wanderings. The New Danger seems perfect for a year filled with interesting, occasionally awe-inspiring albums that don't really work as a whole, from the Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat to the Roots' The Tipping Point. Of course, it's those brief, brilliant sparks that everyone remembers and make Mos Def's vacillations worth listening to. -- Mosi Reeves