The protégé of rap superstar Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco has always been tipped to crack the mainstream and become a big name act in his own right, much like his mentor. To date though, he has struggled to make a lasting impression, and although he hinted at rap/hip-hop greatness on his seminal breakthrough single "Superstar", from his last album The Cool, he has struggled to truly fulfil his clear potential to date.
Listening to Lasers, it seems to me as though he has once more fell a little short of the hype. The first single taken from this album, "The Show Goes On" is just brilliant, and gave me high hopes for the album. However, it doesn’t do a great deal for me, and can only hinge on the brilliance of that one track throughout. Nothing else on here comes close to that one moment, and therefore for me this is a bit of a disappointment.
There are some nice moments on here musically, and arrangement-wise, but ultimately the songs are at times quite forgettable. State Run Radio is not that bad a song, and Words I Never Said (featuring Skylar Grey who is everywhere at the moment), Till I Get There and Never Forget You (ft John Legend) are some of the better moments, but as a whole, the album fails to capture the listeners attention for anything more than a fleeting moment. Break The Chain is almost a highlight, and you can tell that it wants to break free and be a stormer, but struggles to get out of the starting blocks, which is indicative of a lot of this album. It could be genius, but it just fails to ignite at the key moments for me, to make Lasers stand out as an essential body of work.
For now, although he is immensely talented, and possesses all the attributes he needs to be a star, he won’t be breaking out to the top of the game anytime soon. He needs to regroup, and come back with a release that is all killer, and no filler, before he can truly start living up to his enormous potential.
Not for me.
3/10
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