After the first listen:
-The first 8 tracks are as strong a sequence as there's been on an album this year. People should probably check it out just for that alone.
-The latter 8 tracks really don't grab me as much. 9-11 are superfluous, overly poppy and kill the flow and thematic content of the album completely. Hell, from the standpoint of a sonic thematic, "Brave Heart" doesn't quite fit either. The lyrics are the lyrics (It's a Lupe album, so the worse you'll get is the blatantly obvious and preachy, and your tolerance for that is a matter of taste), but the songs as a whole don't really fit.
-The last 4 songs were merely good to me, nothing really that great, but I also haven't gotten into the lyrics like that either.
-Listening to this, which is slightly better than Life is Good, made me realize that I kind of overrated that album, as neither of these are really on my "Best of" radar.
Not even close to better than The Cool; probably about as good or a little better than Food and Liquor off the first listen, though the first 8 tracks are better than just about anything on F & L.