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Tag: Common

  • The Sunday Seven 4/26/09: I Was Just Frontin’

    Yep, I know this column has been gone for a long time. A combination of laziness and sickness has prevented me from doing this for about 6 weeks, but I am back with a new sense of purpose. Plus, I wiped out my entire iTunes and started from scratch this weekend. I had my iTunes connected to my external hard drive, on which I have the vast majority of my music. I eventually realized that I was wearing out the “skip” button, because songs kept coming up that I either did not recognize or didn’t care to listen to. So I figured it was better to back up the good files onto my actual computer and sync my iPod to that. That way, I didn’t have to flip through the 10 crappy tracks on Rod Stewart’s “Blondes Have More Fun” (for example) to get to “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” (OK, I didn’t say it was the best example). So this week I’ve only got about 2,000 tracks to choose from, and all of them should be quite familiar to me, so I don’t have to worry about bullshitting my way through this column. Not that I’ve done that before or anything. So away we go…

    Track 1: “Stuck with You” by Huey Lewis & the News (from “Fore, 1986)

    So, what should I talk about here? Should I discuss the fact that “Stuck” was the second of Huey & the News’ three #1 hits? Should I talk about the cool video? Should I talk about Huey Lewis’s legendary endowment? (apparently the news was in his pants). How about none of the above? I think these guys get shafted-they were one of the better singles acts of the Eighties, and for some reason, they always remind me of summer. Maybe it’s the fact that all their videos seemed to be set at the damn beach. If you’ve ever seen these guys tackle the national anthem at a sporting event, you know that they’re no joke vocally, either. So, give it up for Huey. He deserves your props.

    Track 2: “The Look of Love” by ABC (from “The Lexicon of Love, 1982)

    Ah, a classic from the glory days of British pop. There was a 2-year span when we got the best of Duran Duran, Culture Club, Yaz, Soft Cell, The Human League, Spandau Ballet, Heaven 17 and these guys-all more or less blue-eyed soul acts, and all hit at virtually the same time, thanks to MTV. It was an explosion of hairspray and makeup and accents. Martin Fry’s delivery on this song is very much in line with the hyper-dramatic flair many of these bands here. If you believe those VH-1 pop culture specials, apparently the spoken part of this song was suggested by David Bowie. Interesting, eh?

    “If you judge a book by the cover, then you judge the look by the lover”…truer words were never said.

    Lordy, is this video gay.

    Track 3: “Water Runs Dry” by Boyz II Men (from “II”, 1994)

    Remember when Boyz II Men were all over the place? They were at #1 on the charts seemingly every week, were winning every award in creation, and seemed to be unstoppable? This was probably their finest moment of that era, although they had bigger hits. I love the airy harmonies and the acoustic instrumentation. This is actually one of Babyface’s better written songs, and it doesn’t sound (much) like every other ‘Face song in existence.

    That Motown covers album restored BIIM’s luster a little bit. I’d love to see them come back with some new material.

    Track 4: “Change Your World” by Anthony Hamilton (from “Ain’t Nobody Worryin’”, 2005)

    There was a point in time when I was jocking Anthony Hamilton HARD. I’ve had the extreme privilege of seeing this guy in concert twice, and believe me when I tell you he puts just about every other male R&B singer out there to shame. Not only can he sing his ass off, but he brings a gospel-like fervor to his stage performance. He catches the Spirit for sure. This track is from the album before his most recent one, and it’s a beautiful, old-school styled ballad. Nice to know they still make songs like this these days.

    Anthony Hamilton – Change Your World – Anthony Hamilton

    Track 5: “Break My Heart” by Common (from “Finding Forever”, 2007)

    How did Common fall off so hard in just a couple of years? Success didn’t agree with the dude. After he broke through, he officially began to suck, and that’s a shame, because for a long time Common was one of the hottest emcees out. This smoothed-out song is much better from a musical standpoint than it is lyrically. The first verse is almost embarrassing. Although nowhere near as embarrassing as 90% of the material on “Universal Mind Control”, his latest piece of shit album.

    Break My Heart – Common

    Track 6: “Theme From Shaft” by Isaac Hayes (from the “Shaft” soundtrack, 1971)

    OK, now what the hell am I supposed to say about this? Do I make a joke about “They say that cat Mike…he’s a bad mutha-SHUT YO’ MOUTH! Well, I’m talkin’ about Mike. Well we can dig it”? Nope, because that would be lame. Ah, here’s something. There was this album cover from the Seventies, I’m not sure which one it was, but I know for a fact that it was Isaac Hayes. I used to be scared of it. I was a pretty jumpy kid. Prince’s “Dirty Mind” cover scared me too. And that was BEFORE I heard the music in between the covers.

    Go ‘head, Jesse. And what the fuck is Ike wearing?

    Track 7: “Frontin’” by Jamie Cullum (by “Twentysomething”, 2004)

    Yup, this is a cocktail jazz remake of the Pharrell/Jay-Z song that was huge five or six summers ago. This song actually lends itself well to the jazz arrangement. I like Cullum, he’s pretty cheeky. If you’re gonna do that kind of music, you might as well bring something different to the table, right? He hasn’t put out an album in a while, I wonder what happened to him.

    Here’s an interesting fact. Jamie’s the guy that got me into Jeff Buckley. I’d actually had a copy of “Grace” for years, but never really got into it until Jamie covered “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”. Then I went back to “Grace” and finally heard what everyone else had heard ten years before. Hey, we can’t be on time for everything, right?

    I would LOVE to see this kid live. Maybe an Anthony Hamilton/Jamie Cullum double bill? I’d probably be the only person in the audience for both sets-ha!!

  • Listen To Sonic Clash Radio – Episode 1

    Money Mike and I did a “test run” for Sonic Clash Radio, which is our foray into the world of podcasting. Just remember that it’s a test run. But we had a ton of fun and hope to do more episodes in the future.

    If you have any thoughts about the show in general, drop us a comment. Is the audio too low? Can you hear us clearly? Does it move too fast, too slow? What do you want to hear us talk about?

    You will get to enjoy:

    – My debut as a producer. No, there are no boards to be behind, but I get to play drops and put callers through (if and when we get callers).

    – Mike going through all the new releases this week, including thoughts on new albums from Common, Brandy, and Maroon 5.

    – Mike and I discussing Britney Spears topping the charts.

    – And a whole lotta news in the music world.

    As P. Diddy once said, just press play (below).

    To download the show, right click and save the link below.

    Sonic Clash Radio – Episode 1

  • Common Says “Screw This Conscious Stuff, I’m Going to the Club…”

    What goes up must come down, they say. Chicago emcee Common peaked in 2005 with the hit album Be. It was a critical and commercial high water mark for the rapper, who’d toiled in the underground for over a decade. I’d imagine watching less talented rappers sell more records than you gets kind of frustrating. He followed Be up last year with Finding Forever, which seemed like a faded carbon copy of Be. Common just didn’t sound hungry anymore. His rhyming, once widely acknowledged as among the best in hip-hop, had become lazy and tired, as the production became shinier and poppier than ever before. The choruses of “sellout” became louder and louder with each play of the album, which hasn’t aged particularly well. Despite all that (and very possibly because of the goodwill that his previous album generated), Finding Forever became Com’s first Number One album and also won him a Grammy.

    I guess after mining the same musical and topical territory, Common decided that it was time for a change? Because Universal Mind Control is definitely not the Common that you’re used to. Apparently while hanging out in Europe, Common got the idea to make an album of music that would get some bang in the clubs instead of the coffee shops. You could hear the collective groan across the hip-hop nation when this was announced. The groans got louder when it was announced that the album would be largely produced by The Neptunes, a production outfit that’s known for shiny, poppy club anthems. I, like many other Common fans, picked this album up with a great deal of trepidation.

    So, here’s the deal. Universal Mind Control isn’t the travesty I thought it was gonna be. The production sound is definitely different-The Neptunes (with talented half Chad Hugo thankfully on board) have given Common the least organic sound of his career. Synthesizers are out in full force, giving much of the album a pumped-up, adrenalized sound, while the rest of the album is moody and spacey. These moodier songs come across as almost like a second cousin to Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, only minus the heartache and Auto-tune.

    That said, the album is still a bit of an ill fit. The man can still rip a track the way he used to-check out the feverish Gladiator if you don’t believe me, but there are times when Common’s rhyme style just doesn’t fit properly with the club-friendly production. There are also several songs on which he sounds like he’s phoning it in, and strangely, they’re almost all sex/love songs. Now, coming from the man who’s written some of the warmest, most inviting love songs in the hip-hop genre (The Light, Love of My Life, Star 69 (P.S. with Love)), hearing trash like Punch Drunk Love and the God-awful Sex 4 Suga is quite disconcerting. This is especially since I was expecting the songs to have great rhyming over crappy production, when I actually wind up with crappy rhyming over pretty decent production. I must say, Pharrell and Chad are more or less on their “A” game throughout the album. Skateboard P even rips Common with a tight verse on Announcement, although he almost loses me when he compares his penis to a Blow Pop. I’ll never look at grape suckers with gummy centers the same way again.

    There are times when a less complex Common actually works-like on the album’s caffeinated title track, an obvious homage to Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock. Towards the album, on songs like Changes and Inhale, he even starts to sound like the old Common again, but he wastes a gorgeous vocal from Tricky sidekick Martina Topley-Bird and some excellent drum ‘n bass-inspired production from Mr. DJ (of OutKast fame) on the album’s closing track, Everywhere. That’s one song that would have been better without Common at all.

    I’m all for change. Hey, I’m the guy who thinks Kanye’s trip into Radiohead territory has resulted in one of the best albums of 2008. However, some people are meant to stay in one lane and one lane only. Common is at his best when rhyming over hard-hitting hip-hop or thoughtful, soulful production. The electro-hop sound that permeates the majority of Universal Mind Control just isn’t a good look for him. While there are a handful of decent songs on this album, I don’t know that I can recommend an album like this knowing it’s from the same artist that gave us masterpieces like Be and Electric Circus. Something tells me that Common needs to get off of Hollywood’s Johnson and return home to Chicago for a little dose of reality, which seems to be his best muse.