Album Review: Wiley - The Ascent

Wiley's already copped considerable backlash for his latest attempt at a pop crossover. This isn't entirely fair. While The Ascent eventually spills over into EDM excess and loses its way, it's also the closest Wiley's ever come to releasing a truly definitive album.

Opener Ascent Intro is one of the most jawdropping tracks he's ever released. An entirely solo production, Intro welds together Amon Tobin-style polyrhythms, a staggering wordless refrain and a certain bittersweet grandeur to deliver a performance that is frankly beyond even the most generous estimate of Wiley's talents. Devastating bass-heavy follow-up First Class is almost as classic. From that point on, things grow increasingly confused and underwhelming. Weighed down with seven guest MCs, Skillzone is emblematic of one of the album's two main albatrosses. Namely, overcrowding. There are so many guest artists (particularly MCs; few of whom are actually impressive) that Wiley actually gets shoved to the background. This is particularly true when it comes to choruses – The Ascent's second albatross.

Nearly every song on the album comes replete with some faceless guest-artist delivering a token Guetta-style refrain. Occasionally, it's brilliant. Ms D on Reload isn't quite her idiosyncratic self but sufficiently brings the noise as to make the drum'n'bass stomper an album highlight. Most of the time, the hooks just aren't there and the ubiquity of the device just makes the album blur together.

Like most things on the album, it just obscures Wiley's true skillsets. Somewhere in The Ascent is Wiley's best album. It's the only time he's managed to make an album that even comes close to showing his eclectic talents. He just got a bit lost in the fray.