Conqueror of an ‘urban’ audience and headliner at major venues around the world, Glasper has recorded to a consistently high standard in the past decade. But this is the session in which his creative well has run disappointingly dry. Where the likes of Double Booked and Black Radio offered stimulating answers to the not inconsequential question of how to embrace all of the music borne of the African-American experience, this album finds Glasper trading on what sound like readymade responses to a call for eclecticism. The ability of the leader and band to move from backbeat to swing, soul to hip hop, funk to electronica and all points in between, is still impressive but what is conspicuous by its absence is good tunes. The paucity of the melodies, many of which are annoyingly saccharine, is compounded by the excessive use of Casey Benjamin's vocoder as a lead instrument, which sadly lacks sufficient nuance to make the arrangements palatable. The reprise of Herbie Hancock's gorgeous ‘Tell Me A Bedtime Story’ is passable, but it only highlights the failings of the originals elsewhere. While Glasper's self-appointed role as a populist is an important one it would be a real shame if he were to now compromise the quality control that marked his previous efforts. This new music is as chart friendly, perhaps even more so, but it is woefully below par for an artist of Glasper's stature.