Novel Gets Deeply Personal on “Sunset Unlimited” (Listen & Download)

(Quick note: just wrote this up as a worldwide premiere over on the mothership, but I was digging it so much I thought I'd flip it onto RefinedHype Nation as well. Also, I need to make a coffee book called "Pictures of Rappers & Their Moms". Come on, like you don't want to see a six-year-old Rick Ross and his mom.)

Over the past two years we’ve heard singer/rapper/producer/int’l man of luxury Novel write songs about every topic you could imagine, from singing the 'Legatto Blues" to riding the "Night Train", but I don’t think we’ve ever heard him as fearlessly open as on newly released Sunset Unlimited. Sunset Unlimited is an unflinching look at the waves of depression that sometimes threaten to drown Novel, a condition he believes was passed down from his mother.

Produced by the man himself and Shoden1, Sunset balances hard hitting percussion with deeply layered synths, making the beat simultaneously brighter and darker than you’d expect. (That’ll make sense once you listen, hopefully.) Vocally Novel’s penchant for R&B with undercut with blues girt is on full display as he takes listeners inside the more hidden depths of his mind and soul, balanced at times with notes of humor and optimism (who saw that Charlie Sheen reference coming?).

While we’ve been waiting a long, long time for his oft-delayed album Calligraphy, if it contains more music like this I have a feeling our patience will be well rewarded.