Description
By the time the Wu-Tang Clan finished their first round of solo projects and reconvened for their second album as a group, the album had become the hip-hop fad of the moment.
While the result, Wu-Tang Forever, is frequently brilliant, it's also sprawling and unfocused, losing its handle on the carefully controlled chaos of Enter the Wu-Tang.
Wu-Tang Forever easily would have made a brilliant single LP; RZA's production is more polished than the debut, thanks to a bigger budget and better equipment, and leans heavily on soundtrack-style strings to underscore the album's cinematic scope.
Some hailed Wu-Tang Forever as the best double-LP hip-hop album yet released, but others regarded it as a disappointment; despite its many high points, it's the first time the Wu didn't quite fulfil their ambitions.