Gil Scott-Heron – “I’m New Here” (2010)
Another review of Gil’s comeback album from last year, this time courtesy of the Pitchfork Media website. This review comes from Nate Patrin, dated Feb. 10, 2010…
There were few voices that articulated the anxious, fractured state of America in the 1970s and early 80s as well as the clear baritone of Gil Scott-Heron. As a spoken-word artist and poet, he could pinpoint the fissures in the American dream and exorcise them with a wit that blended righteous anger and arch sarcasm. As a singer he could envelop those same uncomfortable confrontations in a rich, emotional tone that brought out the empathetic face of unrest. Yet except for a chorus cameo on Blackalicious’ “First in Flight” and a memorable shout-out on LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge”, he was rarely heard or cited in the early years of America’s great post-traumatic decade, even if his pained depiction of “a nation that just can’t stand much more” in “Winter in America” rang as true in 2002 as it did in 1975.
Instead, Scott-Heron spent much of the 00s in and out of prison on drug charges, adding onto a long hiatus that saw him turn away from the record industry in favor of live performance and writing. Between 1983 and 2009, he released only one studio album, 1994’s Spirits, so issuing his first in Read the rest of this entry »
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