RetroHash - Asher Roth

I imagine I was one of only few to be genuinely excited about Asher Roth's second album, all on the basis of his debut - Asleep in the Bread Aisle from 2009 - which I imagine created quite a bond with the listeners who did actually find it great, not just because it went mostly below the radar (and we all love an underdog), but because it was a frat boy album and as we all know: no frat boy anything will ever be held up as a masterpiece, whether it is or isn't.

The fact that the Asher Roth on RetroHash isn't a frat boy at all (well ok, he still has the party spirit inside him) but is another youth type just as ignored as the frat boy - the "enlightened" do-gooder stoner - is bound to cause some groans from people who think Roth should of done some growing up, some trips around Asia to find himself, before his first release. The Roth of RetroHash is the same as the environmentally friendly bad-guy kids of 21 Jump Street, only making albums instead of dealing drugs. Only, as anyone who knows the type knows, none of these people have yet found themselves and are just as (how to put it?) 'lost in the world' as their younger counterparts. Roth hasn't found himself just yet.

It's a forgivable offense to have your debut album flooded with reviews saying it's filled with 'promise', and that's what Roth's debut got (but seriously, go listen to it, it's more than promises), but a lot more worrying to have album number two get the same. RetroHash is such a slight album, filled with weird sound effects and random sonic ideas that all feel unfulfilled. It sounds like getting to listen to a really good album when it's only half-finished. If your looking for a point of reference then think of His Dream from Bread Aisle, which was slow and introspective, which RetroHash extends into an album long laid back dance lounge. The backing tracks have a bouncy, arcade-like enthusiasm, bordering on psychedelia. It's a better premise for an album - a stoner album with a positive message - than it actually works out as.

One problem is Roth gets lost in the mix: hidden behind the backing tracks and pushed out by the featured artists (if you've heard of a single one before this then you're ahead of me). Roth doesn't rap as much as he should; just lets his lines spin around in the psychedelic whirlpool. "Remember 'do something crazy?'" Roth sings at one point, almost in disgust; although ironically the best track on the album - Be Right - is the only track where Roth is actually allowed to let out his real talents; it's not that his flow is fast, it can be, only that he finds a style of his own (and on the opposite end of the spectrum to easy comparison Eminem) spinning his rhymes in a patient, interpersonal fashion. It's a sign that Roth isn't all that comfortable in his new groove - and just when he was beginning to get into the old one (go listen to non-album single Last Man Standing for a showcase of his frequently questioned talents). I won't say it's not a fun album, it's unique from any other hip hop output right now, although you can only real like it for what it is - far away from loving it for what some of us expected it to be.

Then again, I haven't heard any case that Roth's generation, the twenty-something soul searchers who should have found themselves by now, actually have a clue where they're going. RetroHash is only a step, not a leap, in one of any infinite number of directions Roth wants to go - but it's so very millenium generation of him not to know which one to take or who to be, but to simply be fine for now with the searching.