Record maintains cohesion

Usually, when a band puts out an album with an assortment of different musical ideas and tastes, it’s a warning sign of a potentially disjointed effort and an inability to find a cohesive thread.

Not so with Afropolitan, the new album from Derrick Ashong and Soulfège. Here, every song has a unique style that works to the greater focus of the record.

Following a quick instrumental intro, the album really gets started with its title track, a fast-paced hip-hop song. Unlike many rap songs currently out, which focus heavily on the beats or bass in a dubstep crossover, it’s Ashong’s vocals that drive the track, with the instrumentation as a complement. In a way, the track is close to old-school hip-hop, but Ashong’s lyrical style is entirely modern.

After the intense hip-hop of “Afropolitan,” the very reggae “Easy Does It” seems like a jarring turn. It’s only after listening to the entire album that the style changes make sense. But “Easy Does It,” like the song before it, excels in the genre that flavors it.

Switching styles, “Find Another Man” hits listeners with old-school funk. Here, the instruments take a bigger role, producing slick guitar lines and a clever, danceable beat.

Lyrically, there are two main themes at play in Afropolitan. On one end are the love songs, where Ashong and Gramling craft cool lyrics of romance and adventure with their partners.

There’s also a social and political bent. In many ways, Afropolitan is a call to action, telling listeners to get up and get involved in their communities. The songs that take on this theme are clever and far deeper than they might appear on the surface.

There really isn’t a clear signature sound to the album, but that’s a theme in and of itself. It’s an experiment in technical ability for the band, which still aims to offer entertaining and substantial songs. Ashong and Soulfège use the record to explore all Afro-based genres — appropriate, considering the album’s title.

The ballad “Angel” features an undercurrent of soul that picks up once the song gets going. Then there’s “No More,” a gospel-influenced track where Gramling’s vocals take over.

Keeping with the African influence, Ashong draws on a traditional song from Ghana in “Mle Mle Mle.” A drum-driven track, the song also brings back Ashong’s rapping skills, as if to balance out the increasingly mellow songs that dominate the record up until that point. It’s a unique mix of styles, taking cultural classics and mixing it with an MC-rap feel. It’s that kind of genre mashup that makes the album stand out.

Soulfège follows this up with another genre turn, this time embracing a kind of mix between reggae and swanky 1960s lounge music for “Life of the Party.” Like the previous track, it’s unexpected but it works. The influences the band pulls into each track seem tangential and unrelated, but each time, they are successful.

Afropolitan wraps up with “Close Your Eyes,” mixing together the song “Michael Row Your Boat” with spoken word lyrics from Ashong. It’s a simple song, amplified by a recurring horn element. In many ways it’s the culmination of the social aspect of the album, with the band singing about rejecting apathy and taking action to make its voice heard in society. The music is working hard to get its message across.

Afropolitan isn’t a collection of streamlined sounds. Instead, it’s a chance for a band to test its skills and master a wide range of genres. In that sense, Ashong and Soulfège succeed.

Though the album never regains the level of energy it sets up in “Afropolitan,” each track is still solid. Though the musical variety is what makes Afropolitan appealing to a larger audience, it’s also the quality of each song that makes the album worth listening to.