Dark Times

Swirling dreary beats with even more overcast thoughts, Dark Times is a lucid snapshot of melancholy. It lives up to its name. It’s dark out, but Vince presents a meticulous portrait of someone with just enough reason to wait for sunrise.

Staples is in top form on Dark Times. It's another chapter of his uniquely smoke-colored narratives, form-fitting production, and perfectly balanced expressions of heaviness and acceptance.

An incredibly concise and cohesive project, Dark Times clocks in at an airtight 35 minutes across its 13 tracks.

Dark Times plays like a musical memoir, even if not all of its stories are entirely autobiographical. For a rapper who’s always leaned toward a cynical perspective, Staples shines when he leans into the struggle, using his experience as both an example and a cautionary tale.

Dark Times is more detailed and specific in its mission and references; as a result, he seems less guarded, more vulnerable. The album’s sonics support Staples’ lyrical direction, conjuring ever-changing environments, ever-shifting interdependencies, and that identity is unstable, ever-evolving.

‘Ramona Park…’ was a bravura work of therapy, a rap bildungsroman that crafted an entire world. More insular, ‘Dark Times’ is in many ways less accessible; that said, it refuses to let the quality dim, it’s endless stream of ideas enticing and perplexing in equal fashion. In emphatic style, rap’s foremost outlier demands your attention all over again.

Dark Times undoubtedly makes for more challenging listening than Ramona…, but for listeners willing to put in the time and effort, prepare to be rewarded.

There’s nothing on Dark Times that’s surprising and challenging for Staples but little that detracts from what already works.