Album Review: Verseless - Antithesis: Light

Albums are a great thing, it gives us the listeners and fans the insight into the life/mind of the artist. Its much more complex when the album is by a producer, who offers very little to no vocals on the album. Such attempts either hit or miss the spots. Verseless has given us some worth listening to EP's and was anxious to see how he will fare on his debut album! The album Antithesis: Light, finally dropped and after some time listening to it am ready to make an informed review, So here we go:

The album consists of 13 track and will be doing a track by track review below. One thing that caught my attention are the artists featured, one will think Verseless was gonna fill his album with the known big guys but he stuck with the unknown and upcoming. Its either he did not want to compromise his vision/sound (with bigger artists egos tend to come into play) so he chose those guys who will perform/deliver as he expected or he just didn't have the cash to pay the bigger guys!?!.

1. Gwinyai vs Philo ft Soza, Icara & Shaynon 

The album starts on a more personal note. Verseless is talking to himself on this track. Sometimes we all have that internal conversation where are split on what to do, on which life choice to make. That's the situation Verseless is depicting here. When you have big dreams, the conservative side of us is at constant war with the risky ambitious part. This is a important part on human life because that's how you self motivate yourself and also how you get real with yourself, stopping yourself from useless actions. This is not a typical song one will listen to 5 times a day. I believe this song was put on this album for Verseless more that for the fans. 

2. Radiant Days ft Upmost (Interlude)

The first interlude on the album and its more of spoken word. It has some lovely acoustic country music inspired guitar work. Its about those days when you just feeling awesome and you're just adding life to all those around you. Quite nice.

3. Sunrise ft Purewood

This is on a drum and bass tip. The instrumental is standard, love the edgy bass line . Purewood gave an awesome vocal performance, he managed to complement the beat very nicely. There are certain people in life that just lighten up your life and chase away all the misery and sadness. This track is talking about those people. This is beautiful jam, am loving it.

4. Kaleidoscope ft Tash Mwana Wamai & F.T.R

Love the feel of this track. Tash Mwana Wamai gives the track a nice ragga feel which accentuates the instrumental very well. F.T.R did a great job on the verses. The instrumental is superb, its arranged in drum & bass kind of way with some dancehall elements. [Kaleidoscope; A continually changing pattern of colours and shapes]. This track is about appreciating your partner with their imperfections. Loving them for who they are. People have many facets, moods & complex personalities, this track is saying with all those stuffs, you are my perfect love. Lovely. 

5. I'm Yours ft Alexander Star, Sekajipo & Zee

This is one groovy Will.i.a.m kind of track. Its has a catchy chorus and a techno future type of instrumental which is superb, in European markets such an instrumental will be a favourite of many, personally I love it. The guys on the vocals gave a good performance, the one in charge of the rapping was definitely sounding like Will.i.am for most of his verse. The track is all about assuring your partner that you're theirs. Simple but nice. In overall the track is solid. Love it.

6. Clearer Days ft Blak Anakin

This is another interlude. Spoken word like the first one. This is about letting go, letting go of all the noise, mist, darkness that we hold on to and free our minds so we will be able to see clearly. Its more of a a meditative piece, helping you to clear your mind.

7. I Can't Change Your Mind ft Jono

This is on a a progressive house tip and Verseless did a great job on the production. House such as this sounds the same for most parts and despite the great production it's not a track one will listen to for months to come, its good but similar to a hoard of other house tracks. Love the trap insert its a nice touch. Jono gave a great vocal perfomance. The track is for those moments where you wish you can go back in time to change something you did. We all mess up in life and some actions we wish we could undo them. Nice.

8. Picture Perfect ft Daniel Jenkins & Tehn Diamond

The instrumental here has a lot of ambiance and is wavy. The bell sound is a tad bit loud in some cases and in those moments its a bit hard to hear the vocals clearly. Love the kick pattern though especially from 3.30 going on wards. The track is about appreciating someone as they are, that they are picture perfect already without any artificial add-ons. Daniel Jenkins gave a great vocal performance, his voice blended well with the ambient, wavy instrumental. Tehn Diamond was okay nothing much to write home about, one can easily forget he is on the track, Daniel just stands out and dominates.

9. I Don't Care ft Simba Tagz

This jam gets u hooked on from the start and it keeps you hooked as the kicks commence. Love the bumpy instrumental. The backing vocals were on point, Tagz was composed and awesome on the vocals, his performance reminded me of his brilliant Black EP. You cannot help it but sing along to the backing vocals. Most of us have been in a situations where we mess up and then discover that we made a big mistake and then ask for a second chance...which in most cases will not be fair. This track is about such a situation but from the perspective of the one who was on the receiving end. Tagz is saying you wasted your chance and I don't care about your apology or promise of change...I just don't care. This is a solid track. 

10. Brighter Days ft Aether

This serves as another interlude. It more of spoken word like the other similar named interludes. Aether is talking about spreading love and peace, he is discouraging people to hold on to pain, and disappointments as that would lead to people concentrating on revenge and other negative activities.

11. Simba ft Aura The Poet
Already did the review of this one, check it out here: Simba Track Review. 

12. Breakfast (Flow Into The Music) ft Thandie Lin
Already did the review of this one, check it out here: Breakfast Track Review.  

13. Life Of A Party ft Q Sound, Sharky, Lincoln The Prez, Nick Kuraz, Synik, Mile, Marques, Jonah

For some reason the intro (the bounce, swing, dip, turn...) reminded me of Busta Ryhmes Touch It. The instrumental is nice, its good on the ear. The track has an insane amount of artists and they worked quite well together, Jonah did a great job on the Chorus. The track is about those ladies who seem all presentable and desirable when you look at them but all they think about is having a blast which makes it hard for you to settle or have a long lasting relationship with them. The track is long though, you need strength to finish it.

The albums in overall has this bright vibe about it, with some heavy ambient moments. The production is done very well, great job to Verseless. However the album is not exactly what Zimbabweans are used to in terms of sound from the local front, which is a both good and bad. Its good in that, those who are have an open mind when it comes to music like myself will enjoy the album. The bad side is that the majority of Zimbos are not like that, we are used to some deep, sungura influenced bass lines and music like this although it sounds nice a few will give it much thought. His move to work with the unknown and upcoming artists kind of paid off in music terms, because the songs are sounding awesome but it also affects the album in terms of popularity.

I loved the Home EP because when it came out I did not know what to expect then a new vibe and sound appeared which took me by surprise. Now i'm used to Verseless's sound and this album is what I expected largely hence it surprised me less. Yes it shows that Verseless is a versatile producer which is awesome but if one majors in a lot of genres the uniqueness and ability to master a single genre is forgone and the result is a producer who can make good songs instead of exceptional songs. In overall the album is average/its okay with a few standout tracks such as I Don't Care, Kaleidescope, Simba, Sunrise & I'm Yours.
Proud Zimbo Rating : D (55%)

What are your thoughts on the album??

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