Aceyalone

This mix of hip-hop with Motown, soul and doo-wop is not the inspired concept Freestyle Fellowship's Aceyalone has been struggling to showcase since sophomore solo album The Book of Human Language dropped in 1998. The Lonely Ones is the second in a series that sees Acey dip his hip-hop chocolate bar into a variety of musical flavours in the hopes he will have peanut butter cups but the results are often more gimmick than anything else and it becomes repetitive over a full album. Still, it is Aceyalone, so the album has its highlights. "Lonely Ones" is the most hip-hop, with a Roy Orbison hook done as doo wop that's perfectly appropriate for the rhymes about picking up girls. "On The One" is a hyper b-boy rocker anchored by funky new age horns. "To The Top (remix)" is a groovy call-and-response military march readymade for Stripes 2, right down to the lyrics and "Push n' Pull" is a jazzy number that recalls The Book of Human Language. What really holds this album together is the live band feel that's also applied to the doo-wop and R&B choruses. The Lonely Ones isn't Aceyalone's best but it's also far from his worst.