After a host of disappointing solo albums and quickly diminishing celebrity (most of the latter devoted to the continuing extra-legal saga of ), returned, very quietly, with 2000's . The lack of hype was fitting, for this is a very spartan work, especially compared to its predecessor, the sprawling and overblown . While the trademark sound is still much in force, group mastermind jettisoned the elaborate beat symphonies and carefully placed strings of in favor of tight productions with little more than scarred soul samples and tight, tough beats. The back-to-basics approach works well, not only because it rightly puts the focus back on the best cadre of rappers in the world of hip-hop, but also because 's immense trackmaster talents can't help but shine through anyway. Paranoid kung fu samples and bizarre found sounds drive the fantastic streets-is-watching nightmare Unfortunately, though, isn't quite the masterpiece it sounds like after the first few tracks. It falls prey to the same inconsistency as , resulting in half-formed tracks like with barely saving 's lone appearance on the LP, a phoned-in vocal (in terms of sound and quality). When they're hitting on all cylinders though, are nearly invincible; a feature with , isn't just claustrophobic and dense but positively strangling, and singles material like and are punishing tracks. Paring down -- nearly a two-hour set -- to the 60-minute work found here was a good start, but could probably create another masterpiece worthy of their debut if they spent even more time in the editing room. ~ John Bush