Ever since it’s announcement, the collaborative album between Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah and Toronto music trio BadBadNotGood has been highly anticipated. Despite being around for only a few years, BadBadNotGood has already recorded an impressive array of energetic and explosive fusions of jazz music, hip hop and rock music in a short time span. With an already impressive collaboration list with the likes of Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean and Leland Whitty, their project with Ghostface seemed like a natural and exciting one.

Those who have been following Ghostface’s career as of late shouldn’t have been surprised with the collaboration either. Less than two years ago, he dropped “Twelve Reasons to Die,” a revenge-fueled story album filled with vintage soul, R&B and rock instrumentals provided by band leader Adrian Younge. Ghostface tried to recreate this vibe on his next album, “36 Seasons,” but fell short with less captivating verses, stories and instrumentals. On the bright side, the release of “36 Seasons” came with an announcement that Ghostface’s next project would be a collaborative album with BadBadNotGood. Being a fan of the Staten Island rapper and the Canadian jazz trio, I was highly anticipating the project’s release in February 2015.

However, after having listened to “Sour Soul,” I must say that my expectations weren’t necessarily reached. As far as instrumentals go, the music backing Ghostface’s verses is in the same lane as his last two albums. BadBadNotGood does an excellent job of creating the sound of a gritty ’70s revenge film soundtrack, especially in the three interludes that are on the record.

Perhaps my biggest problem with Sour Soul is how short it is. With it being just more than 30 minutes in length, there aren’t really enough tracks where Ghostface is rapping at length. In some tracks he only raps one verse before ducking out and letting the song end with instrumentals. As far as his overall performance on the record, a lot of Ghostface’s verses are just average by his standards. It’s like he’s in second gear in the album’s opening tracks.

The music steps it up a notch when the impressive feature list “Sour Soul” makes their appearance. Detroit MC Danny Brown’s high pitched and insane delivery on “Six Degrees” feels like a challenge to Ghostface, who forces himself to step up his performance.  Then there’s Elzhi throwing punch lines across “Gunshowers,” Tree providing a rather subdued verse on “Street Knowledge” and finally MF Doom appears on “Ray Gun” with another one of his kooky verses. All four of these partnerships help to add more layers to the record.

Overall, it felt like two forces in hip hop opted to get together and have a nostalgic jam session, rather than sparking anything that pushed boundaries. “Sour Soul” is an album that features a range of talented extra artists and has BadBadNotGood demonstrating their musical talent, yet it feels like Ghostface is resting on his prior achievements. This album was certainly more exciting in its billing than its execution. However, the album still had its moments with great melodies, instrumentals and verses. I just wish they had lasted longer. I give “Sour Soul” around a 3.5/5 rating.