Eugene emcee/producer Sammy Warm Hands has been making music about two decades now, and he’s been working at a very steady pace these past few years, whether it be releasing solo albums, pairing up with artists like Ogar Burl, getting back to his roots as a singer songwriter, or going to the vaults to release material from his old group, The ILLusionists. While he’s certainly kept busy, it’s been three years since Sammy Warm Hands last official solo album, Vacant Eyes. That all changes now, as he releases Figures of Speech.

Back in the day, when there was more emphasis on physical release and the majority of us listened to music on the same format, an album like Figures of Speech, which is twenty four tracks long and clocks in at a little under eighty minutes, would have been given a grander treatment as the rare double album, when an artist just had that much to say that it couldn’t be contained to one album. These days, when you see an album that long posted somewhere, it usually indicates an artist who can’t filter themselves and just puts up everything online, and maybe some of it will be good. Fortunately, Sammy comes from that older era, and he’s not just doing a material dump with Figures of Speech. Once you start to listen to the album, it becomes clear that Warm Hands just got the creative juices flowing and started writing and making beats and the next thing he knew, he had a double album on his hands. There’s no filler or down point on the album – you don’t listen to it and think of the obvious tracks that you would trim to make this a shorter, tighter album. The whole thing is energetic, passionate, and invigorating, and it gives space for Sammy Warm Hands to explore a lot of different issues on the album, whether it be race relations and the current state of politics in our country, saying goodbye to a cousin who committed suicide, breaking down the grind and economics of making it as an independent musician, discussing philosophy, or just having fun trading verses with some of his friends and colleagues. We do get guest appearances from the likes of Carnage the Executioner, Supastition, Peter Feliciano, B. Dolan, Ogar Burl, J. Philly, Casual, Gift of Gab, Skeptik, Blueprint, and Illogic, who come in and have fun going toe to toe with Warm Hands, all adding their own unique style on the mic to the album. And while Sammy handles the majority of beats on the album, we do get some additional production from Durazzo, Tzarkazm, Danny G, Web Beats, Illogic, Onry Ozzborn, and Graves 33. Without looking at the credits, though, you wouldn’t necessarily guess which beats they did, since Sammy Warm Hands was careful to bring in outside beats that weren’t just bangers, but actually fit the overall sound of the album he was crafting. It all comes together for a very complete listening experience.

While Figures of Speech might look daunting on paper, it’s actually a very easy and enojyabe album to listen to in one sitting. That’s because Sammy Warm Hands isn’t filling some sort of contractual obligation with this release, he’s just expressing himself to the fullest. The good news is that this far into his career, he still sounds fresh and inspired as he takes you through all the ups and downs and ins and outs of life with his music.