As with 05’s
Dropping From the Trees, The Acorns put on a concise show that won’t clog up your day : 13 tracks within an album barely 35 minutes in duration insanely contradicts these times of padding out every last second of an 80 minute disc. Some might even say
Forming Roots isn’t given enough time to make its mark – the lack of hooks and in-out song structure bear this out in places - but there’s ample latitude for Mad Squirrel on the mic and Blake9 on the boards to become rewindable rather than filling downtime.
The tea-sipping Mad Squirrel still rhymes with a canine-troubling high-end, a lolloping, Candlewax-shouting chatter that remains between Slick Rick and Paul Barman. Certainly the beats crafted by Blake9, moving around the prior boom-bap of the pair, are suited to the self-importantly quick-lipped observations of the curly-haired cartoonist (although the Squirrel never sounds like he’s oversexed).
Molly Cat and tongue-twister
Self Help Elf roll with a flow making plenty of room to brush the dirt off his shoulder while getting the Jansport to swing.
Ducks and Bucks is total
Paulellujah!, its boucealong beats seeing Squirrel humanising the opposite sex into breeds of beaks and bills like Andre3000 talking about cheese and rats on Kelis’
Millionaire. Soft Serve is the album’s bookworm, backed by more wiggling, tittering funk and rallying “if you got long hair and tie-dye, dance to this”.
Clair’s Revenge is a storyteller’s spot on the ins and outs of acquaintances and crushes; call it The Cool Kids with more of a plum in its mouth.
For Joy is again about girls around the way that are the cause of both adolescent intrigue and long-lasting head scratching, over Blake9’s low-rummaging funk. Such puzzlement is ideally set up by the Squirrel’s head-in-the-clouds alto.
Squirrel cements his position as the oddly desirable geek who always has a disposable shoulder to cry on. In fact, MS’ general outlook, as evidenced on
Little League Champs, is the bench-sat bystander whose source of material is just watching people pass him, minding his own business while making comers and goers just that. Over funky guitar jerks,
Silly Sonic has Squirrel playing the uber-nerd (or today’s hipster) who bats away competition with untouchable self-cool, despite comically mumbling to himself towards the track’s conclusion.
Ant Banks gets on quasi-battle, show-n-prove business, Squirrel defending himself while sounding comfortably weedy in serving emcee’s asses.
After all the japes, the album actually finishes with the bit between its teeth. Both Squirrel and Blake show more purpose on
Deep Colors, with the emcee working up genuine venom aimed at a significant other and B9 plugging in gruff synths and resolute breaks, that carries into the chaos-stirring Dilla drums of
Is It Wrong?Lyrically an improvement on
Dropping from the Trees given Squirrel's greater attention to clarity and measure of his words, and Blake9 just telling him to be himself as the disarming funk will take care of him.
Forming Roots is a successful bid to turn the pair into an emerging cult duo.
www.candlewaxrecords.com / www.myspace.com/theacorns1