Consistency is often a gift and a curse within hip-hop circles. Spend too much time doing the same thing and the sound gets stale. Go too far out of the box and fans long for the sounds of yesterday. This is the space Chicago emcee Twista occupies today. After rhyming over sonic soundscapes from the likes of The Neptunes and straying too far from the signature sound that made him famous, Carl Mitchell took it back with his eighth studio album, The Perfect Storm.

In many ways, “The Perfect Storm” is a concoction of tracks that resemble songs we’ve heard before. The album kicks off with “Darkness” featuring fellow Chicago spitter DaWreck of Triple Darkness. In true throwback form to “Adrenaline Rush” Twista and DaWreck tear through a mid-tempo, brooding beat courtesy of The Legendary Traxter. DaWreck more than holds his own and the collaboration is similar to the chemistry between Twista and Buk of Psychodrama on previous albums. The album’s lead single, “Make A Movie” features a resurgent Chris Brown. The damn near triple X rated track finds Twista doing what he does best—talking the ladies out of their panties while Brown sounds extremely comfortable in the role of co-pilot telling his partner how the episode is about to go down.

The Perfect Storm finds Twista occupying two distinct roles that have been his lane for more than ten years: lover and fighter. On the slowed down “Up To Speed,” he reminds the rap game that he’s been doing this for years – and reminds fellow fast rapping emcees that he still does it better: “Twista been comin with fast lyrics for year/I’m glad to see niggas catch up to speed/But when I come to doin a intricate pattern/I bet you y’all can never fuck with me.” The album is cohesive in sound thanks to the majority of board duties being handled by longtime collaborator The Legendary Traxter.

If you’re looking for some new songs to add to that iTunes playlist for “company” (yes, THAT kind of company), the album has some gems. In addition to the aforementioned “Make A Movie,” a show stealing performance by Tia London on 2012 makes apocalypse sound super sexy. Elsewhere, Ray-J lends his talents to the catchy “Call The Police.” “Sweating” rounds out the trilogy nicely.

The album’s blatant missteps are few, but with a lean eleven tracks, a couple of bad apples can spoil the whole bunch. “I Do” is eerily similar to Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad,” but the track is not nearly as good as Luda’s and not fitting for a Twista album. Despite a tolerable verse from Waka Flocka, “Hands Up, Lay Down” is quickly a forgettable song next to the other signature Twista tracks. At the end of the day, “The Perfect Storm” breaks no new ground—but it not supposed to. And while there’s a feeling that Twista has another stellar album in him, this one fits nicely into the catalog.

In conjunction with TWV.