Juno award-winning rapper Shad released Start Anew on Halloween this year, marking his seventh studio album and his first full-length release in four years. In typical form, Shad gives us social commentary with an old-school sound and flow paired with smart wordplay. It is a laid-back affair that sonically evokes the ’90s and 2000s with a few more modernly arranged tracks added in. Highlights include “Bars and BBQs,” “Slanted,” “Islands,” and “Discern.”
In terms of subject matter, the album touches on late-stage capitalism, hustle culture, and global hegemony, which is to be expected as Shad has been injecting his music with political commentary since his debut album twenty years ago. Start Anew may even offer less optimism in its tone than some of his previous works. Past singles like “Black Averageness” or “The Old Prince Still Lives at Home,” for example, made you feel like everything might end up okay despite the world’s current problems, and he tackled legitimate economic and social issues with humour.
By contrast, some of these tracks feel like … perhaps not despair, but are certainly reckoning with the fact that the world has made slow progress these last two decades. The closing track, “Fear of Death,” for example, imagines the death and possible rebirth of established orders, and contemplates the purpose of an individual’s time on earth with quiet resignation and faint hope for the future. I suppose faint hope is still hope, but it is somewhat less fun-loving and upbeat than some of his previous work, though perhaps more vulnerable in its approach.
On the whole, of course, Start Anew makes for a chill old-school listening experience with clever references, good bars, and topical political commentary throughout. Certainly worth including in this year’s top 100.
