The W in Bloomington, MN

After a host of disappointing solo albums and quickly diminishing celebrity (most of the latter devoted to the continuing extra-legal saga of
Ol' Dirty Bastard
),
Wu-Tang Clan
returned, very quietly, with 2000's
The W
. The lack of hype was fitting, for this is a very spartan work, especially compared to its predecessor, the sprawling and overblown
Wu-Tang Forever
. While the trademark sound is still much in force, group mastermind
RZA
jettisoned the elaborate beat symphonies and carefully placed strings of
Forever
in favor of tight productions with little more than scarred soul samples and tight, tough beats. The back-to-basics approach works well, not only because it rightly puts the focus back on the best cadre of rappers in the world of hip-hop, but also because
's immense trackmaster talents can't help but shine through anyway. Paranoid kung fu samples and bizarre found sounds drive the fantastic streets-is-watching nightmare
"Careful (Click, Click)."
Unfortunately, though,
isn't quite the masterpiece it sounds like after the first few tracks. It falls prey to the same inconsistency as
, resulting in half-formed tracks like
"Conditioner,"
with
Snoop Dogg
barely saving
's lone appearance on the LP, a phoned-in vocal (in terms of sound and quality). When they're hitting on all cylinders though,
are nearly invincible;
"Let My Niggas Live,"
a feature with
Nas
, isn't just claustrophobic and dense but positively strangling, and singles material like
"Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)"
and
"Do You Really (Thang, Thang)"
are punishing tracks. Paring down
-- nearly a two-hour set -- to the 60-minute work found here was a good start, but
the Wu
could probably create another masterpiece worthy of their debut if they spent even more time in the editing room. ~ John Bush