The Old and The New
Dame Fortune is the sixth album to come out from RJD2, and with this being the sixth album RJD2 has been living well with inside his niche of bringing together electronica beats and soul inspired melodies. Dame Fortune does not derail from this.
“A Portal Inward” kicks everything off with its strong enveloping bass intro and as the chords begin to layer on it creates tune up impression for Dame Fortune. Everything remains very light until the end with the bass coming back to make the atmosphere darker. This is the last of the darker electronica for awhile, as “The Roaming Hoard” does a complete 180 and helps the album settle into its soul and funk inspired sound. Dame Fortune is split almost equally between RJD2’s solo pieces and his collaborations. Singers like Phonte Coleman and Blueprint show up throughout and lend their intense lyrical contributions which RJD2 is able to come and match. Looking through the solo songs, “A New Theory” is able to stand out on its own as a bit like a throwback DJ piece and “Your Nostalgic Heart and Lung” stands out from the rest as it goes in a different direction as the rest of album and the only song to reflect back to what was laid out in the intro. “Portal Outward,” though, is able to act as the perfect bookend to the album.
Dame Fortune does have both its highs and lows. Whenever a collaboration song comes on, the song is backed by both the lyrics and the full textured sound and it makes for an intriguing piece to listen to. Unfortunately, it is when the solo songs come on that the sound gets a little lost, in particular, “PF, Day One.” It has a bit of a psychedelic flair with its electronica rifts but other than that there is not much to the song and compared to earlier songs like “Peace of What” it comes off as pretty plain. While Dame Fortune is not completely missing mark, it is not hitting it just right either.
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