Magnolia Thunderpussy

Reviews:

You can call it yet another comeback, because it’s only been a year or sosince the last Wu-Tang Clan album, and that in and of itself says many things.The last comeback was the real one—The W was the grimiest album of2000, a pan flash of beautiful darkness in an iced-over sea—but this onecounts as well for many reasons. First, it says the crew is organized. But thenagain, these are desperate times. The grimy sound the Wu helped pioneer almosta decade ago is decidedly out of favor. Indeed, group members often complain abouthow mainstream urban radio has effectively banned them from the airwaves.

But more intriguingly, just as the group’s poet Ghostface Killah did on hislatest album, the Wu lighten up a bit without compromising a shred of edge. ByWu standards, Iron Flag is downright exuberant. Why? RZA’s turnedup the juice. “Uzi (Pinky Ring),” full of drunk trumpets and dizzy drums,is an edgy stunner, like screwed-down go-go music on crack. “Babies”is the only moment of pure pain (along with the Ghostface verse on “Rules”bemoaning the attacks on the World Trade Center), as raw as anything on TheW, but it’s only a passing sentiment. “Radioactive (Four Assassins)”finds Method Man getting witty, and on “Chrome Wheels,” RZA drops atypically bizarre narrative over moody cyber-funk. Planting a flag is usuallyassociated with discovering new territory. The Wu have done that enough timesalready. Now, they’re content with occasional expeditions to prove that theycan still one-up the competition, when they bother to try.