Lessons learned from “Life Well Lived” by :Brownstudy

by Samuel Hernandez

On Life Well Lived, the artist :Brownstudy attacks introspection and self-help life lessons with minimalism and positive feeling. The first track off the EP gives us a mantra: “Handclaps never get old, smiling never gets old, good food never gets old, it becomes you.” An important line because in addition to summing up the lines that precede it, lines that mention a better way of living and of questioning aspects of living, it also comments on the minimal beat clapping along with choral soundings.

The album proceeds as an invective against ignorant lifestyle: “end your denial, cease to ignore the slaughter, expose the ugliness, manifest the beauty, understand that your defeatist postmodern lazy spoiled attitude towards your recognized hypocrisy are a bloody malice.” The song “Towards Improvement” ends in the way that its themes sneak up on you, by inoffensively diffusing the heaviness with “play amazing ball.”

Life Well Lived is positive hip hop on top of diverse instrumentation, not Jay-Z but WHY?, acoustic guitars jangling, bells ringing, and the whole body coming into play. :Brownstudy’s style is fast-paced and repetitive, driving home truisms about well intentioned living that every person should aspire to, without an abrasiveness that will upset anyone whose life doesn’t correspond.

The album is positive reinforcement and affirmation. Listen to the album on headphones and let it make you happy.

Life Well Lived  is out on March 10, 2014 on iTunes