The Wing Zero EP
By Richie Branson
Released date: March 20, 2012
Price: Free!

How many of you were fans of the anime Gundam Wing when it was show on Cartoon Network? I know there are a bunch of you out there. I was one of you, still am a fan in fact. The other day I decided to break out the DVDs and started watching the show all over again. It remains a decent show and may have been the first anime any of you ever watched. So, when we got word that there was a new mix-tape from artist Richie Branson based on the show, I just had to take a listen to it. So I’m here to tell you about The Wing Zero EP EP. Now, the good news about this is that the record is free to download right now from Branson’s webpage. The album is worth taking a listen to, especially at that price. It contains 13 tracks, six songs and seven instrumental tracks, and is pretty decent but not as good as I had hoped it would be.

I’ll start off with the good by saying that I very much enjoyed the music on this mix-tape. Branson takes some of the best music from the show and blends that music with some very good beats to create an album that I’m happy to listen to again. The instrumental tracks on the album are just the regular tracks without any lyrics, and I got as much enjoyment from listening to those tracks as I did from the regular tracks.

Sadly, the lyrics to the actual songs are kind of boring. The songs mostly revolve around and use the same couple references to the show. It’s just, “Hey remember the Talgeese? Remember the Epyon? Remember this other thing from the show?” There’s nothing really interesting said over the course of the six songs. The kind of hip-hop I enjoy is the kind that gets me into the rapper’s mind and lets me know who they are. I don’t feel like I know Richie Branson beyond the fact that he likes Gundam Wing. I’d like to see him keep working and refine his lyrics into something more personal. I don’t want to be too harsh here, as he is giving this away for free. It’s a good effort and anyone who has fond memories of Gundam Wing will want to give this a listen, but it’s not a perfect effort. Like I said though, I don’t want to give this album that hard of a time. I mean, Richie Branson is being good enough to hand it out for free, so it’s worth checking out, even just to see if you enjoy it maybe more than I did. I’ll give The Wing Zero EP a 3 out of 5.