Up until now, most of the reports concerning the Wu-Tang Clan‘s latest album 8 Diagrams have been discouraging. Claims ranging from Ghostface having yet to contribute to the album to the album getting pushed back have given fans plenty of reason to worry. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to have arrived for Wu fans, however, as Billboard and The Village Voice were both privy to some of the Wu-Tang Clan‘s newest work:

“Producer RZA’s trademark dark, symphonic samples are at the core of Weak Spot and Thug World, the latter of which also features a number of his memorable lyrics (“I love my bitches like Chachi loved Joanie /fucked 200 pussies but I still feel lonely”).

Raekwon adds grit to Watch Your Mouth (“I’m from a boulevard where n*ggers get jacked and peed on”), while Method Man is showcased on the soulful head-nodder They Want To Stick Me for My Riches. On Take It Back, the group raps about reasserting its hip-hop dominance, with Method Man noting, ‘Before you even had a name, you was screaming Wu-Tang.’ (courtesy of Billboard).”

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In addition to confirming and praising the Ol’ Dirty Bastard tribute “Life Changes”, Village Voice had glowing remarks for the rest of the album:

“That brings me to another great thing about The 8 Diagrams: Ghost is on it. Ghost has no-showed some recent Wu-Tang shows, and there have been plenty of rumors that he hasn’t been getting along with the rest of the group, that he wouldn’t have any verses on the album. But he appears on three of the eight songs I heard, and he’s in top form. Actually, everyone is in top form. Raekwon sounds as hard and opaque as he ever has. Method Man has stopped playing the clown, sinking back into the gravelly menacing energy that made him so compelling in the first place.”

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Finally, words which should be comforting to every Wu fan were written:

“Maybe even more importantly, The 8 Diagrams actually sounds like a Wu-Tang album. It’s dark and swampy and eerie and gothic and mysterious and heady in a way that, say, Iron Flag wasn’t…all the tracks I heard certainly sounded like RZA tracks: creepy minor-key horror-movie strings, broken pianos, shuffling head-crack drum-loops, ghostly vocal samples, chanted choruses, kung-fu movie dialogue, clashing sword sound-effects, the whole thing.”

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Be sure to check out HipHopDX’s audio section for Wu-Tang’s newest song off of The 8 Diagrams, Watch Your Mouth right here!