Rating:
  Review Date: October 5, 2009
  Website: E&A Website
  Label: Rhymesayers

Eyedea & Abilities “By The Throat” Album Review
I’ve been listening to this album off and on for over a month now. To be honest, it didn’t really jump out at me right away, but was good enough to hold a spot on my current rotation. Then after several listens, it really started to come together for me. Eyedea & Abilities’ “By The Throat” is one of those albums you shouldn’t listen to just once: Because once you get past the shock of the duo’s new rock approach, the often-emo lyrical content, and the fact that the album is very short, you’re likely to find yet another amazing work of art by E&A.

Why I Like This Album?

1. It’s another new direction for E&A – “By The Throat” is the third Eyedea & Abilities album that has been unexpectedly innovative. While both the philosophical, self-examining “First Born” and the elemental showcase of lyricism and turntablism “E&A” came as a shock to fans of former emcee and deejay battle champions, “By The Throat” shows the duo take a darker, rock-flavored approach to hip-hop. And while fans everywhere have complained that the group’s new direction is straying from what has made them brilliant, I believe it is E&A’s continued shifts in direction that is an essential part of their brilliance. For me, part of what makes “By The Throat” such a good album is knowing that Eyedea & Abilities have come a far way musically to end up here.

2. The rock thing works for E&A because it is real – I don’t think that Eyedea and Abilities sat down one day and decided to create a rockish hip-hop album. I think the album simply reflects what’s happening in the artists’ lives – and the rock sound fits with the lyrical content. Eyedea clearly went through a painful period in his life and wrote about it in these songs. And showing the duo’s ability to still mesh creatively, Abilities created an album’s worth of backdrops with the same mood and feeling as the lyrics. So while some detractors are criticizing E&A for trying too hard to do something different and cliché, I think that “By The Throat” is a natural musical result of Eyedea’s experiences in the half-decade since “E&A” dropped.

3. The lyrics are great – One of the things that isn’t surprising about this album is that Eyedea continues to be a certified member of hip-hop’s lyrical elite. Yet “By The Throat” shows a much more personalized approach from the emcee, as several songs let the listener in on real life experiences.

Hay Fever, for example, is a song about dealing with the death of a friend or loved one. Abilities’ electric guitar riffs and snare beats blend perfectly with Eyedea’s tone of confusion and fear as seen in the song’s second verse:

There’s no hell more harsh than a memory/
There’s no hole more held than an empty nest/
Winter takes the warm away, spring takes the cold away/
Summer takes the rain away, and fall took away my friend/
I believe there’s never a place better than right where you are/
Although imagining an afterlife can tend to mend a broken heart/
Over someone and it’s a way of coping with loss/
But I don’t need you out there somewhere if I have you in my thoughts/
I don’t envy anyone in a position where they’re forced to chose/
Pull the plug or not, I can’t tell if this is for me or you/
I mean I know you’re sick, tired and confused/
But sometimes letting the tired go to sleep is the best thing to do/
I will hold you head while the doctor sticks the needle in/
I’ll always remember our companionship and what it meant/
And on Sunday, October the fifth/
You took your last breath, and you will be missed/

Another good example of this personalized lyricism can be seen in Burn Fetish, in which Eyedea likens love to having some kind of fetish for pain:

Welcome to my private hell/
There’s no one to fight now, just myself/
Rather drown then ask for help/
I wish I was someone else/
Mr. Perfect misconstrued/
Lead the way, follow through/
Probably hate me I do too/
You’re so much like me I feel sorry for you/
But I think you’re pretty, pretty sure/
You will profit, you will get hurt/
I eat my words they taste like dirt/
I’m only ashamed because I know what it’s worth/
Found my comfort inside plain/
Shove my pride back down my face/
My worst habit’s waking up at least once a day/
Balanced barefoot on a needle, heaven’s just a jump away/

4. The album still manages to maintain a positive vibe – Despite all the pain, anger and sadness that is apparent in Eyedea’s lyrical topics, many of his verses maintain a feel of hope or optimism. While tracks like Time Flies When You Have a Gun, Junk and Factory point out a variety of human flaws, This Story talks about hope for the future of mankind:

Well you can hear the break in it’s grown up voice/
You can feel the quiver when you shake it’s hand/
You can give or take, it’s no one else’s choice/
One day you’ll have to quit running and take a stand/
And all the flags at half mast/
Part heavy heart, part pain in the ass/
I was trained not to think just react/
Sometimes when a person goes that far, they’re never coming back/
Maybe we’ll evolve to a point where fear as an experience/
Is no longer instinctual but rather an emotion we use/
To enrich our understanding of why our/
Human ancestors killed each other/
When they could’ve loved each other/
One day we’ll be holding hands instead of grudges/
We’ll eliminate our territorial circuits and know what love is/
One day we’ll be holding hands instead of M-16’s/
‘Til then every human being is controlled by the fight/

You see this same optimism in other tracks as well. Former HHL quotable of the week Smile talks about maintaining a positive outlook despite life’s many challenges. And in the album’s title track, which is about the end of a relationship, Eyedea drops the following verse wishing happiness despite having a broken heart:

And I finally know/
Your kindness, your pride and your past is my only ghost/
Going crazy out of my control/
But there’s nothing I can do, I have no choice but to let it go/
Each day gets a little less intense/
I no longer feel like there’s someone standing on my chest/
You made me more me and I won’t forget/
The times you helped me find my feet when I was buried in my head/
Thank you for giving what you had to give/
Taking what you had to take/
And making me believe in you/
Even though I might be gone forever/
There will always be a place in my brain that will think of you/
You look so graceful when you’re flying/
Keep going there’s a lot of world that you haven’t seen/
You have my best wishes even if only it’s silence/
You deserve everything that you’ve ever dreamed/

Overall: Eyedea & Abilities’ “By The Throat” is one of my favorite albums of 2009. If you’re a fan of the group, you will appreciate their change in direction, continued musical continuity and ability to work through personal issues through their music – all while maintaining their realness. If you haven’t done so already, pick up a copy. PEACE.

Album Track Listing:

1. Hay Fever
2. Spin Cycle
3. Time Flies When You Have a Gun
4. Burn Fetish
5. Sky Diver
6. Junk
7. Forgive Me for My Synapses
8. This Story
9. Factory
10. Smile
11.  By the Throat