This album is good. This album has soul. This album has great lyrics. The album contains a message you want to hear. This album has beats that are carefully crafted. This album is inspirational. This album, well, yes, this album unfortunately demands a 'but'. Because all of what's mentioned above, it's still 'but'. It's good, but... It's good, but not as good as (the faultless?) "NIA". There, I said it. With about half of you agreeing and the other half not. But what's our beef? Well, to put it in a nutshell, this is too Neo Soul, NuGroove, with too many sung choruses and less full sounds that made "NIA" so beautiful. To the extend that you feel tempted to say: 'if I want that much Neo Soul, NuGroove and sung choruses, I listen to Neo Soul, NuGroove and don't want it from a Blackalicious album.' Straight up.

What then could lead us to a reversed 'but', because this album is still good. And in a way, just comparing it to the last album is unfair, while hard to not to. That's also why we shouldn't miss the quick sample during "Introduction: Bow & Arrow", where a voice says: "You know as well as I do that things are changed." Yes, they are. As what we get is a combination of the previously sung choruses and a more soulful approach. But the biggest change is that the sounds are less plush, less room filling, while calling them shallow would be very wrong too though. Because there's still tracks like "First In Flight", that features Gil Scott-Heron. And if you know the man's great "Spirits" album, you know why he was picked for this song. His voice fits the again warm sounds, that nevertheless contain a struggled afterthought, with the total of the message again fitting both Blackalicious, as well as Gil's agenda: "I never hesitate about a reluctant mind / just put the peddle to the metal see what ya find / you back there slouchin over won't you pick up your spine? / let's make it really really happen live up this time / cause you can choose to say 'Good morning God' or 'Good God, morning'."

Proving why Gift Of Gab needs to be respected as one of the most stylish emcees, as well as one of hip hop's most effortless messenger is "Nowhere Fast". Here we are getting the yesterday with the bitter pill of today, with tomorrow being the only hope. The track further includes the drums from Ahmir '?uestlove' Thompson, courtesy of The Roots, along with more live instrumentation, that can't prevent this from being one of the best tracks. More of the incredible word skills by Gift Of Gab are expressed on the flowing "Paragraph President" as on "Release Part 1, 2 & 3", where the lyrical heavy weights Gab, Saul Williams, Lyrics Born and Zach De La Rocha team up to do something that's treated to a different backdrop, making this partially spoken and rhymed.

More musicality is explored on "Make You Feel That Way ", that can't shrug off the melancholy, that Gift explores with rhymes about the blessed moments of a good feeling, like: "making music that'll bump for a thousand years / eating right feeling conscience like health is first / said a prayer that's sincere and you felt it work". Finally concluding "a bad day'll make you really notice ones that's good / and that'll make things a little better understood". This track however also gets us a little nostalgic again, as it makes us think of "NIA", with vibes that are in the tradition of it. Ben Harper secures an interesting beginning on "Brain Washers" that then however is drawn too much into his usual territory. The separated end of this track then leads up to an sequel to "Alphabet Aerobics", this time being called "Chemical Calisthenics", with both tracks being produced by Cut Chemist. The request on the last one was "can you say it faster", is answered by Gab's answer being "I can do anything I want". This however is not just going the neck breaking speed, but actually has Gab do lyrical loops, getting upside down and then always settling over newly changed rhythms. Lastly "Passion" captures some of the determination, while the beautiful singing on "Day One" enjoys the benefit of a hope giving end to this record.

That however also includes the weak, like "Sky Is Falling" that is probably as bouncy and stinging you ever want Blackalicious to get. "Green Light: Now Begin" and even worse "It's Going Down" (this being a horrible mismatch for the usually very ill Lateef The Truth Speaker) are two of the enormously NuGroove offerings, while "Purest Love" is just not proper. Hence we again can't neglect the bickering completely. Even in the face of such quality, that must further proofs how good Blackalicious is. And no review can argue that away. Because by now you realize, that preferring "NIA" to "Blazing Arrow" is only due to ones choice and preferences. That at the same time fails to say anything about the quality of this great, but not as much as the other, album.