Album Review: Voir Dire
By: Anthony Millan
The Alchemist has always drawn something special out of Earl Sweatshirt. Not because Earl isn’t immensely talented on his own – which he has proved on projects such as Some Rap Songs – but because Earl’s dense lyricism and relaxed flow have always felt at home over The Alchemist’s lush, sample-based arrangements. With having proved their chemistry on songs like “E. Coli” and “Loose Change,” the pair’s debut collaborative album was heavily anticipated. After four years of being teased by The Alchemist as a hidden album on YouTube, Voir Dire was released on October 6, 2023, on streaming platforms.
The album finds Earl at his most comfortable. Rhymes come easy to him, and he raps like it. His flows aren’t perfectly on beat - but they never feel sloppy or lazy. This is partially due to The Alchemist’s beautiful, slow backdrops he provides Earl with. Not to discredit Earl’s pen, which is still one of tight rhymes, vivid metaphors, and his signature humor. Album highlight “Mancala,” assisted by Vince Staples, finds Earl reflecting on his old music.
“I recollect all the pain I had to author, fresh / wading out the waves, foot on a colonizer neck like a collar.”
This elaborates on Earl’s revelation that he has found a way out of his old, totally encapsulating pain. While the album doesn’t follow any lyrical themes, Earl still shows glimpses of his emotional vulnerability, reflecting back on the past in a better headspace, which this album would have benefited from more.
In terms of song structure, each track is, for the most part, one prolonged verse on a looped instrumental, and the few choruses feel more like a repeated beginning and end to verses. This is typical for most Alchemist projects, however, for a collab as anticipated as this one, it feels like there was some potential wasted, considering Earl’s affinity for bending the conventions of rap music. Tracks like “Sentry” featuring MIKE better manage to capture Earl in rare form. Over a disjointed vocal sample, which sounds straight out of the Some Rap Songs studio sessions, Earl reflects on drug use and mental health with the most emphatic performance on the album. Towards the end of his verse, he tackles his old demons and declares his control over them.
“Had a couple things on my chest / that’s where the demons would sit / I took a seat at the head / it’s time to eat.”
Songs like this showcase Earl at his full potential with The Alchemist, which I would have loved to have been tapped into more. Regardless of what Earl does on this album, he does incredibly well.
The LP has two feature artists, MIKE and Vince Staples; the latter has some of the best verses on the entire project. “The Caliphate” has Earl and Vince Staples going back and forth on one of The Alchemist’s more ambient instrumentals, with a dreamy string section complementing both artists’ performances. Vince Staples doesn’t quite show Earl up on either track he joins, however, he becomes a reminder that Earl could have made his performances more interesting throughout the project.
By the end of the album, there is something left to be desired due to The Alchemist not really pushing Earl out of his comfort zone. While the lush soundscapes provide a beautiful backdrop for Earl for the entirety of the project, none of them force Earl to approach any song differently, which is something we’ve come to expect from his music. Still, Earl delivers ridiculously tight rhymes and keeps the listener interested on every song. But since Earl has previously proven to be capable of managing the balancing act of rapping and composing the track, there are times Earl’s creative input feels lessened on Voir Dire, though not to a very big detriment. If anything rings true, it’s that The Alchemist has and will continue to be a top producer, and Earl continues to prove that they have incredible chemistry together.