Review #11: Common

Common-Be
(GOOD/Geffen)
8 out of 10

Picture links to Common's website

The state of mainstream hip-hop today is that of a skydiver whose parachutes are defective. Most artists take bland beats, rudimentary songwriting skills, and an astronomical ego and try to churn out an album full knowing that it’ll sell like hotcakes as long as they brag about the right things. It’s causing the game to move at full speed with nowhere to go but down. It’s times like these when great albums are totally necessary to attempt to reverse this pattern. Lately, this album’s been the sixth from Chicago MC Lonnie Lynn a.k.a. Common Sense a.k.a. Common. Common’s fought misguided hip-hop before, in his legendary 1994 hit “I Used To Love H.E.R.” 11 years later, he’s teamed up with his buddy Kanye West, who’s produced and released on his slightly Christian label GOOD the album “Be”. The result is raw and real yet still positive and optimistic.

West’s production is actually not the really spectacular thing about this record. It has its high points, but in reality it’s nowhere as good as his work on various other tracks and his own debut, “The College Dropout”. As he’s been doing a lot lately, he samples like a very poor man’s Avalanches. If this and his latest single “Diamonds” are any indication, it doesn’t bode well for his upcoming “Late Registration”. But enough about the ultra-famous producer. Let us get to the superb MC spitting verses here.

In the same storytelling style as the aforementioned “I Used To Love H.E.R.”, Common is stunning on the short yet epic “Testify”, a startling poem about a court case gone surprisingly wrong. Common snarls each word as if the events described in the track directly affected his life. Kanye shines on the track too as he loops samples from Honey Cone’s “Innocent Til Proven Guilty” to create an amazing, catchy beat comprised almost entirely of vocal cuts. Another tasty little slice of ferocious ghetto politics is “The Corner”, a musical doctrine in defense of the various paths (legal and illegal) that impoverished urbanites take to make ends meet topped off by fiery spoken-word bits by The Last Poets. Also, as a much welcomed treat, a live cut of “The Food” from Chappelle’s Show was placed on the album. The performance in itself was the best musical piece ever featured on the program. Performed in a kitchen while Chappelle tooled around with various utensils, it was placed with the show’s most memorable moments. The addition of the song to the album is a reminder of how incredibly professional the performance was put together and how great the song itself was, especially when you consider that it was aired only on Comedy Central.

The most peculiar track on the album has to be “Go!”, where Common raps about his fantasies over a twinkling synth accompanied by singer-songwriter John Mayer. Before you cry mash-up, though, realize that Mayer’s only role on the track is to sing “Go!” several times. Since I’m a huge fan of Mayer’s work, however, and considering the subject matter of the song, I really think that the track could have benefited from more input from Mayer. It’s this slight sense of restriction of experimentation that somewhat hurts the album.

The biggest mistake on the album would probably have to be the album’s closer, “It’s Your World”. It’s 8.5 minutes long, most of which is comprised of unnecessary and tacky spoken-word input from a group of children and Common’s father. It is reassuring to know that inner-city children have dreams, but I’d rather not have learned this on a highly anticipated rap album. However, the track is supposedly broken into two parts. If so, the first part (the actual song) should have been placed on the album while the second (the spoken word), could have been placed as a b-side on a single or on a special edition.

The rest of the album is full of jams that are great although surprisingly unmemorable. Common’s skills never waver in terms of the verses, but the tracks are slightly diluted when West’s production lacks elements that really distinguish themselves from other tracks. Nevertheless, the entire album, from beginning to end, is tit-for-tat much better than anything chopped & screwed. Put another notch in Common’s belt and let’s hope stuff like this is remembered 10 years from now as a landmark as opposed to crunk-hop.

Key Tracks: “Testify”, “The Food (Live)”, “The Corner”

Review #10: Maximo Park

Maxïmo Park-A Certain Trigger
(Warp)
7 out of 10

Picture links to Maximo Park's website

Seldom have I met folks who are familiar with Maxïmo Park, the band that has surprised many in the know by getting signed to Warp Records; a label known for housing such leftfield electronic artists as Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Boards Of Canada. Just why is this shocking? The band has the dapper demeanor of Franz Ferdinand, the punkiness of The Futureheads, and maybe even a little bit of the smug lyrical wit of Interpol. Yep, it’s one of those bands. The art punk/dance rock outfit.

Not that I don’t enjoy this sort of thing. Maxïmo Park seem to be at the head of a wave of similar artists that tend to fare much better in Europe than in the States (see Editors, The Departure, Bloc Party). To be honest, I’m a bit of a sucker for the whole thing. Bands like this seem to pump out a good number of catchy songs fairly effortlessly, and Maxïmo Park are certainly not an exception. On their debut album, they deliver brief nuggets of foot-stomping, head-bobbing fun with only minimal amounts of lethargic songwriting.

The album’s star is undoubtedly new-wavey “The Coast Is Always Changing”. In a set that seems affixed on maintaining a perpetual stiffness, it stands out as the summery sing-along. It also utilizes a subtle theme of teen angst within its incredibly catchy chorus. I never thought a song would unashamedly provoke me to sing “I am young and I am lost”, but the fact of the matter is this one does. Less jubilant and more frantically irrational in nature, the UK chart hit “Apply Some Pressure” is equally as catchy. It’s in the same mindset as Franz’ “Take Me Out” in that it rambles on about troubling subject matter on top of a peppy discotheque backdrop.

Also worth checking out are a pair of maladjusted love letters, “Postcard Of A Painting” and “Now I’m All Over The Shop”, where frontman Paul Smith finds numerous ways to hate on a former loved one atop even more energetic instrumental work. All this plus various joyous moments elsewhere in the disc (The line “I’ll do graffiti if you sing to me in French” in “Graffiti”, a dash of electronica in “I Want You To Stay” and “Limassol”) make the album an enjoyable listen.

However, the album opens and closes in an aloof manner. The opening track, “Signal and Sign”, is nonsensical and noisy, and ends in Smith painfully howling. The final two tracks are even worse. “Acrobat” is a lump of spoken-word dreck about inadequacy, and “Kiss You Better” ends the album on an unnecessarily saccharine note. “A Certain Trigger” is also a subpar effort by producer Paul Epworth (You can see the impressive list of artists he’s worked with here). He often places emphasis on Smith’s voice when it’s as its roughest or sometimes even when Smith gets a tad lazy. The sound of the entire disc is very treble-oriented as well, perhaps to take weight off the shoulders of bassist Archis Tiku, who doesn’t necessarily spice up many of these tracks with fancy basslines.

All in all, Maxïmo Park’s debut is good enough to place them toe-to-toe with the post-rock-dance-art-pop-punk-something-or-other brass. But can they stay there? Perhaps we’ll know if the game will move ahead or behind them on October 4^th, when Franz Ferdinand’s second album comes out.

Key Tracks: "The Coast Is Always Changing", "Apply Some Pressure", "Now I'm All Over The Shop", "Postcard of a Painting"