Lupe Fiasco is back! Well, at least that’s what the album cover says. It could almost be anybody underneath all the Autotune and radio-friendliness inside. Gone are the intricate stories and subtle plot-lines that created whole worlds and seemingly three-dimensional characters throughout his first two records. That depth has been replaced by radio singles that will no doubt win him a lot more rotation, and in turn open up his music to an entirely new fan-base. But has he made the right moves? And were those moves actually his or his record label’s?

Integrity – it’s one of the most valuable things a musician can have. It’s also very fragile, something that can be broken or taken away in the blink of an eye, or with the endorsing of a product, or the using of a game show to find your new lead singer. Integrity is gained in different ways by different artists.

Lupe Fiasco gained his by arriving on the scene with a truly original idea and a mapped out plan for his entire musical catalogue. He would release three albums, and three albums only. This shows his original artistic vision to be an organic one, not one born from ideas of chasing dollar signs, fly bitches and a phat ride.

His albums were mostly already mapped out, they would contain stories and characters that would intertwine and develop as the records progressed. And through the albums Food and Liquor and the second instalment of the series, 2007’s The Cool, he delivered us exactly what he had promised. Both records are nothing short of being lyrically stunning.

Having the listener still picking up parts to the stories they may have missed even after hundreds of listens. All the while he deftly ran the line between heady lyrical skill and downright pretentiousness, never putting a foot wrong. What surprises would the third and final instalment bring us? What would become of his characters, especially of Michael Young History? How would he bring this opus to a close?

Well somewhere in between the release of The Cool and his latest offering, things started to get a bit confusing. Atlantic, Lupe’s label for all three records, suddenly had a problem with his grand plan. A long and highly publicised battle ensued, after which a compromise was finally reached. The third album in the series would have to wait.

Lupe would release another album in the meantime titled Lasers, apparently an acronym for “Love always shines every time, Remember 2 smile”. ‘FFS’ is the first acronym that comes to most people’s minds after hearing that, I’m sure.

However, instead of following up this debacle with a solid “Fuck You” of an album as many fans had hoped for, we are delivered sugar-coated radio diamonds. At first I was severely disappointed by this, until Lupe himself weighed into the debate and conceded he wasn’t happy with the whole album either. He has stated there are parts of the record he likes, but there are other parts in which he has been forced into doing things he didn’t necessarily agree on, just to get it released. It makes it hard to really embrace an album when its creator isn’t 100% keen on it either.

The first single to come from the album is the ridiculously catchy and appropriately titled The Show Goes On. As much as this is a variation on the usual Lupe – a seriously toned-down variation – there is no denying the catchiness of this song. The songs verses literally bounce along until it hits its saccharine Modest Mouse infused choruses. If a catchy radio track was what Atlantic was after for the lead single, Lupe smashed this one out of the park.

Something that is instantly apparent on the record is the over use of auto-tune and vocal effects. In the opening cut Letting Go, Lupe is turned down, his voice almost hidden underneath masses of production. Unfortunately this becomes a running theme throughout the album. The hooks also start to follow a similar pattern. The majority of them are sung by a guest vocalist; they are all huge sounding electronically tweaked walls of sound. It’s as if prior to recording Lupe has asked Akon to eat Justin Beiber, stick an auto-tuner up his ass and sing every hook on the record…and Akon said, let’s party!

I refuse to believe we have lost Lupe yet though. There are still signs of life here. Lyrically it’s definitely still got that Lupe touch. Although not spitting with his usual ferocity, the words themselves still contain a lot of venom, most notably in the tracks Words I Never Said and State Run Radio. The latter of those two tracks amusingly becomes a contradiction in terms, as it’s about radio stations that play the same hit songs over and over again. Those are the exact kind of songs Lupe has given us on this album.

I have always been a firm champion of Lupe’s ability to flow. He does get the chance to demonstrate his skills, spitting over some complicated beats, the best example being I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now. That track, along with Coming Up, are the record’s stand-out moments. Both are extremely heavy on the production side of things, but underneath it all you can still catch glances of a very talented emcee.

I hope that one day we see his trilogy of albums completed and he gets to release LupE.N.D as he intended to release it. We just have to hope that by the time he is allowed to do that he isn’t too far removed from his own project. In the meantime, I hope this record opens up the Fiasco doorway to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have taken the time.