• Wu Tanger’s “lazy” album still contains moments of greatness.

GZA’s hard-boiled crime narratives have stood out from the gangsta rap masses since the beginning of his post-Wu Tang solo career. It’s no accident that his best albums protract the story into something longer and more detailed (Liquid Swords, Only Built for Cuban Linx). While his latest, Pro Tools, does contain a host of storytelling tacks, they’re met in equal measure by a complement of rap clichés — a somewhat mirthless self-aggrandizing track (“Pencil”), say, or an American foreign policy dis (“Cuban Ties”). Given GZA’s penchant for dense, intelligent metaphors and effortlessly clever wordplay, all of the familiar gangster rap appendages feel like unnecessary restraint.

The buzz surrounding Pro Tools has been that it’s the GZA’s “lazy” album, but this isn’t entirely true. There’s definitely an album he’s excited to be making somewhere within Pro Tools’ filler, but you only get a glimpse of it every third track or so. None of the songs are bangers, but quite a few are memorably sly (“ABCs,” “0% Finance”) and the two with RZA production (“Life as a Movie,” “Paper Plate”) are downright fantastic. It certainly doesn’t rank among the best post-Wu solo efforts, but it’s enough for anyone who doesn’t expect every former Wu Tang member to drench their face with spittle and then knock them out with a microphone punch to the brain.