DJ Shadow

Since his debut album, Joshua Davis, a.k.a. DJ Shadow, has been, well, overshadowed. His recent albums have matched neither the quality nor the hype of 1996’s Endtroducing, the album that launched a thousand turntablists. The Less You Know, the Better comes fifteen years later, from an artist looking to reestablish his artistic stature after the failure of 2006 LP, The Outsider. DJ Shadow, however, is not one to return to his roots. Rather than mimic Endtroducing, Shadow treats each release as an experiment, producing albums that are sometimes spotty but never boring.

With The Less You Know, the Better, Shadow shows signs of brilliance. There are few hip-hop artists who invent rhythmic backbones like Shadow can, like the intricate combination of pots and pans, droning guitars and thick, thumping drums on “Tedium.” Elsewhere, Shadow demonstrates a knack for choosing beautiful samples. The wholesome, mournful vocal (uncredited) on “Sad and Lonely” is stunning, and Shadow smartly provides only minimal support; similarly, “I’ve Been Trying” revives and rejuvenates a soulful old melody. These are the treasures of Shadow’s famously expansive record collection.

Nevertheless, The Less You Know, the Better is strikingly disjointed. He often seems so engrossed in minutiae that he forgets to create a coherent whole. Songs of jarringly different themes and genres butt against each other without transition. There is no overarching sentiment or style, and the few attempts to create unity—the symmetric song names of “Back to Front (Circular Logic)” and “Circular Logic (Front to Back)” and the repetition of the “Sad and Lonely” voice at the album’s end—are superficial. The DJ Shadow of Endtroducing, with his flowing transitions and unified sound, seems to be a figment of the past.

Halfway through, Shadow authorizes the album’s dissonance, saying, “We are getting nowhere... and that is a pleasure.” Small joys are found in the specifics—the whistles of birds and unexpected drumbeats—rather than holistic themes. Still, cohesion matters. “Give Me Back the Nights,” which sets slam poetry to a horror-film soundtrack, is incommensurable in tone and message with the rest of the album. These miscues never fully eclipse Shadow’s moments of genius, but fans of his earlier work will struggle to justify The Less You Know.