Falling Flat

Three years after his debut release in 2011, DELS returns with Petals Have Fallen. His first album, GOB, received much praise upon it’s release but hype has a shelf life, and with his sophomore release it seems DELS might fall into the hip-hop annals as a one hit wonder.

Though the album starts off strong with it’s first song “Limbo,” what follows rarely hits the same target.  “Limbo” is more experimental R&B than hip hop, and it’s an area DEL does well in.  “You Live in My Head,” featuring Elan Tamara has a similar vibe. These tracks have a weird mash up feeling of Nick Cave meets TV on the Radio and it works quite well.

Scattered amongst the two songs mentioned above are nine other mediocre hip-hop joints. They’re not the worst songs ever written but they’re not the best either.  The best thing out of the songs are the beats. “Burning Bridges,” featuring Rosie Lowe has a real interesting instrumental and Lowe does a nice job on the chorus, everything else sounds novice.  “Pack of Wolves,” contains an annoying sound that can’t be described, repeated over and over throughout. It’s a squeal of sorts that can’t really be explained but if the CIA is looking for a new interrogation technique, that sound looped would make even the most tight lipped terrorist rat out his own mother in less than 15 minutes.

Petals Have Fallen hit that bump many artist come across on their second release; “Limbo” and “You Live in my Head,” are two extremely nice tracks surrounded by nine songs that should have remained demos.  The question remains; is it a bump that DEL can over come or a brick wall that will bring his music career to a halt?