De La Soul is dead, again. Or – at best – they’re just hibernating and keeping up with next month’s rent. After last year’s distinctly underwhelming first installment in the AOI trilogy, the boys are back with paty two and for the most part, it’s treading the same tepid water. Still in the deathlike grip of their own top pedigree legacy (it’s impossible to reference De La Soul without some mention of the still-mighty 3 Feet High And Rising), Bionix is the sound of three men flailing around and trying to escape their own history. Problem being, the result is an album full of what ifs: what if there wasn’t quite so much in the way of soft-focus studio gloss; what if Dave, Posdunos and Maseo had eased off on the weed; and most importantly, what if it didn’t come off like a try-hard lesson in unit-shifting?

There are moments here and there, if you care to look hard enough, where the old De La magic shines through – opener ‘Bionix’ is a too-brief stimulus for head-nodding (the bwoys) and booty-shaking (all the ladeez). What’s waiting for you on the other side though, is a dire rendition of ‘Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time’ – better than the original in the same way that a barrel of shit is better than two barrels of shit. Padding out the rest of the album are several uninspired R&B hook-verse-hook workouts like ‘Special’, each as lyrically bland as the next. The skits are – as skits always are – funny for the first time, and then it’s time for frequent recourse to the ‘advance’ button. ‘Pawn Star’ is replete with – surprise! – a porno background track, and a garish “I’m With Satire” get-out card between its teeth. It’s up to ‘Held Down’ to rescue Bionix from the bland swamp of what’s come before – a beautifully judged piece of

Al Green-inflected gospel and soul. Gorgeous and all as it is, it’s too little, far too late.