Halifax

It’s an album by a rapper, but not a rap album. On "Secret House Against The World", Buck 65 finally pulls off the transformation we’ve heard about since he signed to Warner: his reinvention as a folk-rock singer. There are still a few raps, with scratches courtesy of D-Styles, but Gonzales and the musicians from Tortoise are also on board. And much of it is simply gorgeous.

The major-label debut from Buck 65, Halifax’s inventive rapper and beatmaker, hardly sounds like an album designed for mass appeal. It feels more like a mixtape. The Canadian strings together his best production sketches and rambles over them. His ambitions to reach a wider audience would come with the next album. But on "Square", the music is already - or still - gorgeous.