It was on "Temples of Boom" where their music took a darker turn. There was a few shifts as the landscape of hip hop changed over the years , but for the most part they have retained a distinct sound. This is not them putting auto-tune on their voices , but taking what they do and putting against different sounds. It opens with more of a psychedelic feel and organic instrumentation. Lyrically they stay sharp. When you are a rapper from California , rapping about weed which was their stock and trade is like rapping about Slim Fast. "Put em In the Ground" has a more traditional rap feel , but even then they have other shades of atmosphere at the edges of the track. The sung vocal hook to " Jesus Was A Stoner" brings the Gorillaz to mind. It's a darker song than you would expect from the title.
Things continue to stay dark and trippy with "Pass the Knife" . "Oh Na Na" has a 50s feel to its jazzy feel. The first song that really sounds like old school Cypress Hill is "Locos". There is a more Beastie Boys like beat on "Falling Down". It's a much more straight forward song.. There is an interesting beat sampled for "Warlord".The hook of the female vocals dominates '"Reefer Man", yet B-Real makes the most of his verses . The weird 1950's vibe resurfaces on " Crazy" . It's another one with a distinct female vocal for the hook. They go with a different shade of weird for "Blood On My Hands Again". It's one of the album's darker songs so it works for me.
"Stairway to Heaven" is not the Led Zeppelin song. It's not the strongest song so an odd choice for end the album with it. It just lacks a beat to work off of. So it's a disappointing ending to an otherwise wonderful album. I'll give it a 9.5, I'm sure to crank more mileage out of it.
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