You pop this retrospective in thinking, “yeah, I remember what Digable Planets sounds like. What could be new about this?” And this is exactly that same old Digable. At first, it doesn’t seem too special; but then you realize that, though quintessential DP, the most notable songs on it are the ones that are previously unreleased. Right off the bat, Dedicated hits with a simple simplicity and a clear message of family and lasting loyalty: still the same after all these years – and that’s how it’s s’pose to be.
The classics are culled meticulously from the tome of obvious timeless standouts; and acid-jazz anthems like Nickle Bag followed by Jettin’ could play in no other order.
Old material revisited is in no way an insult to purity. For instance, the bass-line on Where I’m from (remixed) deserves only to be rocked through noise-cancellation phones or on a system that over-rides any disrespectful talking or other mere Earthly sounds.
Having recently reunited and hit the road after their tenth anniversary as a group, Digable Planets still have it, and still deliver exactly the puffin’, struttin’ mello-jams they always did.
Oh, yeah – Cool Like That? Yeah, it’s on there…
