"What is the definition of a pyroclastic flow?" asks gravel-voiced narrator Keith David in the intro to 'Raw Footage'. Don't ask me but if anyone can define that, it has to be veteran MC Ice Cube, who at the age of 39 is still laying it down with furious abandon.

With the most recognisable voice in hip-hop and an unparalleled pedigree that goes back all the way to NWA, Ice Cube's street instincts have remained undimmed by a disturbing dalliance with PG-rated comedies and a six-year absence from the recording studio.

The result is a rough-hewn politically-charged vehicle with such high-velocity slugs as the Public Enemy-inspired 'It Takes a Nation' and street single 'Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It', interspersed with melodic R&B-infused capers like 'Hood Mentality' featuring Angie Stone and the Musiq Soulchild collaboration 'Why Me?'.

'Cold Places' and 'Stand Tall' are uplifting feel-good anthems in the 'It Was A Good Day' vein, and provide a further dimension to the usual pop-capping ghetto rhymes. And with such classic lines as "A lunatic, y'all know what I represent/ The only rapper who wanna fist fight the president" and "Take that money that was allocated to us/ Put us in some f***ed up trailers, then sue us" you'd think was pure West Coast gold.

You would think.

But with 70 minutes of playing time and 16 tracks this album is far too long, and apart from the tracks mentioned, there is little else to recommend it. All too often the 'OG' lazes back on his lyrical laurels, regurgitating bars from previous albums and delivering filler after filler flowing like John McCain on crutches in his own presidential campaign: "Take Me Away" or on the juvenile "I Got My Locs On".

If Ice Cube wants to add a couple of digits to his fanbase he's going to have to work harder than this and put out at album with the substance of days gone by. 'Raw Footage' keeps one lusting after that golden era without actually recreating it.