Danny Brown – Stardust

Stardust is Danny Brown out to make a point. His first album made in total sobriety, it finds him collaborating with a host of underground musicians, from animated digital junglists to indie-pop singer-songwriters to Polish rappers, most of whom are about half his age. Brown has built a career as an iconoclast and experimenter who's as likely to conjure memories of syrupy LuckyMe production while rapping about Evanescence (Starburst) as he is to compare women to Pokémon over chiptune beats (1999). Both of which he does convincingly on this frenetic, kaleidoscopic, frequently brilliant new album.

Loading all but two songs with features leads to a certain amount of tonal whiplash, but Brown has the chops, charisma and unbridled energy to mostly pull it off. Few of the featured performers can keep up with him, but the production is inspired and demonstrates how a newfound clarity and focus have elevated every aspect of his artistry. Anyone yearning for a follow-up to 2014 Rustie collab Attak will not be disappointed.

The only minor complaint is that not all of the styles are a neat fit, so it occasionally comes off like Brown featuring on someone else's song rather than vice versa, and there are too many mawkish choruses that have no business on a Danny Brown record (Green Light is the worst offender on both these fronts). But overall this is a tremendous reinvention for the most vital rapper of the last 15 years. No-one is doing it like Danny.

Listen to: Copycats (ft underscores), Whatever the Case (ft IssBrokie)