After a brief stint on Warner Bros., Murs returns to his independent roots on his seventh album, Love & Rockets, Vol. 1: The Declaration— a project via Dame Dash’s DD172/BLUROC. Not much has changed through the course of Murs’s 14-year career. The Los Angeles spitter still excels at straight spitting, penning vulnerable love tales and tackling introspective songs with brutal honesty.

Murs finds closure on “Remember 2 Forget,” as he reflects on a toxic relationship with an ex. “With you gone, now there’s room for/Laughing, smiling, things I need to do more/Let’s think about what we could have been/After what you put me through I’ll never be with you again,” he rhymes.

More solid tracks abound. “Eazy-E” is a dedication to the West Coast’s finest, while “Let’s Go” is a pledge of allegiance to independence. “Animal Style”—a tragic love story between two closeted homosexual men—is the type of thought-provoking content that Lil B could have touched on on I’m Gay (I’m Happy). The song ends with one of the characters killing his lover and then committing suicide.

Transformation suffers from a few forgettable beats, but not in a way that devalues the project. Add another four-star LP to Murs’s solid catalogue. —Carl Chery

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