Sweet Lord

One rapper, one producer, 10 songs, 10 stories: Sweet Lord is the kind of album that's so simple only two veterans could get away with making it. The rapport between Murs and 9th Wonder is made obvious by the tone of their music, which sounds at once highly casual and yet precisely constructed, as though years of experience have let these two do difficult things with ease. Almost all the songs draw from the nostalgia of early-'70s soft soul—but in the style of his hero, Pete Rock, 9th Wonder always finds a way to refold his samples so that they're never simply straight-ahead loops. The listener marvels as he turns The O’Jays’ “Baby You Move Me” into a roiling stew of hums and harmonies. While the cover art might suggest Murs’ agitation over the current state of American politics, the majority of Sweet Lord is about the trials and tribulations of romance. “Marry Me” and “Love the Way” are the kind of old-fashioned love songs that critics say don’t exist in modern hip-hop.