CD Review: Alicia Keys’ “The Element of Freedom”
What’s not to like about Alicia Keys? She’s attractive and talented, and manages to be pop-friendly without being butt-naked or appearing in the tabloids all the time (more on that in a sec).
I also have to say that her albums have the tendency to wear off of me sort of quickly. I’ve fallen in love with each of her previous three studio albums upon release, yet when I play them now, I skip past half the songs. I’m not quite sure why that is, but it definitely tempers the level of enthusiasm I have for her latest effort, “The Element of Freedom”.
“Freedom” is a largely mid/downtempo album of lovelorn songs. Heartbreak and desire figure very heavily in these songs’ lyrics. Alicia seems to have been seriously affected by Cupid in recent days-and if you believe the tabloids, Cupid led her to the very married producer Swizz Beatz, who makes several appearances on this album.
There’s definitely a change in sound on this album vs. Alicia’s earlier work. The acoustic piano-the centerpiece of the majority of her hit material to date-takes a backseat in place of the synthesizer. Now, for most folks, that would spell bad news. Particularly in light of the way music these days enlists synthesized music. Thankfully, there is NO Auto-Tune, no club bounce on this album. The prevalence of synthesizers will actually remind you quite a bit of Prince-this, folks, is a good thing.
The most Prince-y songs on “Freedom” are the midtempo “This Bed”, which sounds like it stepped straight out of 1986, and the breathy, tension-filled “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart”, a song on which Alicia tries out a breathier singing style. “Wait Till You See My Smile” also has an Eighties vibe, matches a Billy Joel piano figure with thunderous synth work that calls to mind bombastic rock bands like Journey. It’s definitely the album’s anthem.
On a more traditional tack, there’s the album’s first single “Doesn’t Mean Anything”. Most people will remark that this sounds a lot like Alicia’s huge single “No One”, and there are definite similarities. This song, however, has a tenser, more percussive musical background. It’s a sharper backdrop for Alicia’s emotive vocalizing. Meanwhile, the ballad “That’s How Strong My Love Is” has an orchestral sweep that recalls The Force MDs’ classic “Tender Love”. There’s also a rendition of Alicia’s recent hit “Empire State of Mind”. With Jay-Z’s rap and the thundering backbeat removed, the song has less swagger and attitude, but the pensive quality of the song makes up for it. It’s less of a triumphant walk through midtown and more of a wistful look at the starry skyline from the balcony of a penthouse apartment.
Vocally, Alicia sounds rawer and less mannered than she has before. She’s investing more feeling into her lyrics, which bother me a lot less than they used to earlier in her career. She’s become very good at creating a mood-as evidenced by the dark, pensive vibe of “Unthinkable (I’m Ready)”.
Beyonce appears on the track “Put it in a Love Song”, and there’s really no reason for this song to appear here other than to be sort of an “event record”. It feels like Alicia’s dumbing down a little bit-trying to record a song with the vibe and feel of “Single Ladies” when she’s obviously a much more thoughtful songwriter than that. This is really the album’s only immediately skippable track.
Over the course of 8 years and four albums, Alicia has done a pretty good job of combining classic songwriting with a modern attitide, and each of her albums has been a step better than the last one. “The Element of Freedom”, somewhat surprisingly given that this album had very little buzz, continues that trend. Whether behind a piano or a wall of synthesizers, wailing or whispering, Alicia Keys continues to stake her claim as one of the best contemporary R&B musicians working today, and this time, I think I’ll feel exactly the same about this album six months from now.
Popularity: 13% [?]
CD Review: Timbaland’s “Shock Value II”
What was I thinking when I decided to plunk down ten bucks on Timbaland’s new album? I should have known better. Timbaland is widely considered one of the best producers in popular music right now, but a closer listen to even his production work reveals questionable talent. For every great one of his kick-heavy beats, there’s 3 or 4 monotonous ones, and it’s hard not to notice that many of the beats boasting his name over the past five years or so have been created with co-producers, making me wonder if his recent pop-centric reinvention is really his creative doing.
As a vocalist, let’s just say Tim is a good producer. He raps in a deep, gruff near-monotone and his singing is a slight variation of the same. Lyrically, he has next to nothing to say other than how rich and/or talented he is-mixed up with an occasional trite love/party song. Even I’ll admit that fellow supa-producer Kanye West is lacking in the rhyme skill department, but Timbo makes Kanye look like Rakim by comparison.
The main reason I bought “Shock Value 2″ was the guest artist lineup. The album has a star-studded group of featured performers, ranging from popular artists I like a good amount (Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and The Fray) to artists that I don’t make a part of my everyday listening experience but I can usually tolerate (Drake). Not even the intrigue of hearing how acts like Chad Kroeger of Nickelback and The Fray sounded over a Timbaland beat can stop this album from being a total waste of time and money.
“Shock Value 2″ is generally electronic, lyrically slight, and features way too much actual Timbaland. On the songs that show a glimmer of promise, he normally shows up and throws the entire track off course. Take “Timothy Where You Been”, for example. The lush, acoustic-flavored track is actually a winner and I even dig the vocals from Chris Cester of Jet (!). Then Tim pops in rapping about how great an artist he is and I feel like popping my speaker open and yelling into it for him to STFU. Similarly, his equally untalented and monotone brother/protege Sebastian starts in on “Tomorrow in a Bottle” and ruins a pretty decent song by Chad Kroeger. When the presence of the widely-reviled Nickelback lead singer actually makes your song listenable, there is probably a glitch in the matrix.
Of course, the fact that Timbaland can’t really sing leads to an increased focus on vocal effects. Yes, folks. There is auto-tune aplenty here. It’s most notable on the idiotic “Morning After Dark” (“when the cats go out the bats go out to play”…huh?) and on “Lose Control”, where former teen star JoJo follows the trend of perfectly good singers going for the auto-tune trick. I guess Tim only listened to the tracks he produced on “The Blueprint 3″ and skipped “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”.
Speaking of Jigga, he’s possibly the most notable Timbaland collaborator missing from this project. Actually, the only rappers that show up on this project besides Tim himself are the aforementioned Sebastian, “it” rapper Drake and…Brandy? Yep, the former teen idol has created a rapping alter-ego called Bran’ Nu, and she debuts on the song “Meet Me in the Dark”. Somewhat sadly, Moesha probably turns in the best rap performance on the album.
But I digress, my point is that there is a noticeable dearth of r&b and hip-hop artists on this record. Considering that Tim has worked with just about every popular artist in either genre, this fact turns out to be something of a head-scratcher. This album is easily the most pop-centric of his career, and I’ll bet that old collaborators like Missy Elliott, Ginuwine and Magoo are a little peeved that they’ve been traded in for the likes of Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry.
Even Tim’s golden collaborator, Justin Timberlake, can’t save this project. On the inane “Carry Out”, Tim and JT come up with a lame waitress/server lyrical metaphor and throw it over a completely uninspired beat. I should also note that this track highlights Justin’s biggest Achilles heel: his songwriting. Anyone who anoints this guy the best pop/blue-eyed soul singer/songwriter working today either hasn’t listened to a Robin Thicke record or forgets that George Michael had written lyrical gems like “Praying for Time” by the time he was Justin’s age. Speaking of blue-eyed soul, Tim wastes vocals and songwriting efforts on two tracks from Canadian vocalist Esthero, who has released two excellent albums of much better material. While I appreciate Esthero finally getting some mainstream shine, I hope this isn’t an indication of what her future work will sound like.
Is there any reason at all you should own this album? Honestly, nope. I will say that if you are the type of music listener that goes crazy over artists like Akon and the now-era Black Eyed Peas, you’ll probably dig “Shock Value 2″. Similar to records by those singers, there’s plenty of emphasis on shiny, clubby beatmaking and no emphasis on songwriting that goes beyond banal cliche. Actually, I should add that if you dig artists like Akon and the now-era Black Eyed Peas, you should seek professional help, but feel free to put the psychiatric diagnosis on hold and pop in a copy of “Shock Value 2″. I’ll even give you mine.
Popularity: 9% [?]
CD Review: John Mayer’s “Battle Studies”
John Mayer’s first album, “Room for Squares”, set up damn near permanent shop in my music rotation shortly after its’ 2001 release, and the two studio albums that followed were even better. Unlike most people, I wasn’t hung up on Mayer’s matinee-idol looks (although I would imagine that most matinee idols don’t have that ugly O-face Mayer has when he performs) or even his admittedly superior guitar skills. For me, it was his lyricism. Somehow, Mayer seemed to tap into lots of feelings I had regarding life, love and relationships. There was an instant and intense relatability.
Well, I guess it’s true what they say: what goes up must come down. Mayer’s fourth solo studio album, “Battle Studies” isn’t anywhere near as good as the album that preceded it, 2006’s “Continuum”. However, let’s be fair here. “Continuum” was a watershed album-the album that managed to convince even my friends that hated John Mayer (and there were plenty of them) that this guy was a lot more than “Your Body is a Wonderland”. Even though “Battle Studies” doesn’t reach those lofty heights, it’s still a pretty solid work. It’s just a matter of tempering your disappointment after realizing that this isn’t another “Continuum” and then appreciating the album for what it is.
“Battle Studies” is, is a concept album about relationships. Folks have been comparing being in love to a war for years-think Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” or Lenny Kravitz’s “Battlefield of Love” or Jordin Sparks’ “Battlef…” OK, you get the picture. Mayer stretches this metaphor out for an entire album, with mixed results.
Musically, the album’s fairly restrained. The most energetic song on “Battle Studies” is a very faithful version of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads”, required playing for every aspiring blues guitarist. In terms of remakes, Mayer has done better (“Bold As Love”, “Free Fallin’”), but this is pretty solid, if a little bit on the karaoke side. He fares far better with original works like “Heartbreak Warfare” and “Assassins”. The latter song has the album’s best lyrics, while the former song comes a close second lyrically but adds an ambient U2-esque musical vibe. It has an expansive sound that’s atypical of Mayer’s vibe but notably still manages to maintain the intimacy that’s a hallmark of his work.
“Half of My Heart” is taylor made (pun alert) to climb the charts, and as if Mayer needed any help making the song a hit, it features support vocals by music’s current it-girl Taylor Swift. On the other side of things, there’s the simple “Who Says”, which sounds agreeably tossed-off. It’s a simple acoustic ditty (that recalls “The Heart of Life”, one of the best songs on “Continuum”), with unusually acerbic lyrics from Mayer (“I don’t remember you looking any better/but then again, I don’t remember you”).
Then there’s the rest of the album. Songs like the bluesy “Perfectly Lonely” and the slow jam “All We Ever Do is Say Goodbye” are decent enough, but I don’t get the same spark of recognition and appreciation on these songs that I get from Mayer’s earlier work, and I think that’s the rub here. There’s not a bad song to be heard here, but some of the songs (especially on the last third of the album) sound like John Mayer spinning his wheels. Thankfully, John Mayer on autopilot is still relatively engaging.
Popularity: 11% [?]
This Is It Delivers
What was once planned to be one of the greatest concert shows of all time, This Is It was turned into a concert movie slash documentary slash inside look at a Michael Jackson’s last days.
I had a bittersweet feeling going into the movie because I knew that for an hour and a half it would feel like he was still alive but when it was over, the reality would set in again. But as a Michael Jackson fan, I had to be there.
There are several reasons why This Is It delivers and it will deliver in different ways for the different types of fans. For the hardcore fans, you get an inside look at what it takes to put together a Michael Jackson concert. You get to see Michael take control, not raising his voice once. Michael commands immediate attention and when he re-directs someone’s idea, he makes sure they understand he’s doing it to make the show better, and also out of love.
For the new fans, Michael shows them a glimpse of his greatness. He goes through the motions of his entire concert and even at half speed, he shows off immense talent. There’s a great segment where he and one of his back-up singers walk through I Just Can’t Stop Loving You and at the end of the song, they go back and forth singing the last line to each other. Michael sees his back-up dancers and musicians watching him in awe and he gives them a bit more than just a walk through and for a few seconds, you see him as he would have done it for real.
Michael Jackson's This Is It promo poster
But the biggest reason to see this movie is simply to hear Michael’s music in surround sound with other Michael Jackson fans. The music is blended in with the film perfectly and you can see how they visually wanted to represent it through elaborate sets and video.
Because of the actual subject matter and footage used, in no way can this movie be must see or brilliant in the usual ways that movies can be. It would be better served as a DVD extra than a full length feature film, but because of the timing of Jackson’s death, it’s timely, and thus can work in a theater element when nothing else made in this same manner could. It’s also longer than you’d expect it to be since they go through all the songs that he was expected to perform in the actual concert starting with Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ and ending with Man In The Mirror.
They had some really great ideas for Smooth Criminal, which included putting Michael into an old black and white film, They Don’t Care About Us, which featured all of his dancers multiplied by CGI into what looked like an infinite amount of marching soldiers, a new Thriller routine, and a great rendition of Earth Song. He kept favorites like Billie Jean and Beat It similar to how you remember them in their epic videos.
Right before the end of his rendition of Man In The Mirror, Michael and Kenny Ortega get the entire group together for a huge group hug with words of affirmation and inspiration from MJ. He told them to give him their everything because they were going to give fans feelings that they’d never felt before. He closed it by saying that everyone was family.
For nearly two hours, I was able to see a very alive Michael Jackson. I was able to escape the disturbing details of his death and just focus on the music and the performer, even though he was only going half speed.
In the ending credits, the song This Is It plays and my thought was that this was truly it.
Popularity: unranked [?]
New Music Review: “This is Us” by Backstreet Boys
Although I certainly have a soft spot for pop music, I’ve never been much of a Backstreet Boys fan. Even in their heyday, their music was pretty mediocre. It didn’t help that, after BSB resuscitated boy band fever in the mid-nineties, *Nsync came along and beat the stuffing out of them. However, you’ve got to give Howie, A.J., Nick and Brian props for their persistence. While *Nsync and 98 Degrees ran for the nearest exits the second that their musical style became passe, Backstreet’s hung around all these years. Granted, they haven’t been anywhere near as successful, but it’s a credit to them that they’re still in the industry making music. “This is Us” is their sixth American studio album, and after a couple of albums of the group going the adult contemporary/soft rock route, it finds BSB returning to dance/pop with a vengeance, armed with today’s hottest producers, tons of synthesizers, and even some of that dreaded Auto-tune.
“This is Us” makes a valiant attempt to capture the heavily synthesized pop sound that’s so in vogue these days. This is probably due to a cast of writers and producers that include RedOne (who’s helmed GaGa’s hits), Ryan Tedder (of OneRepublic) and Jim Jonsin (who produced “Lollipop” for Lil Wayne). Unfortunately, that results in very little that sticks to the ribs. Part of that problem is due to the songwriting-memorable hooks are very hard to come by here, unlike back in the day when Max Martin and his team of writers and producers were able to come up with hooky, hummable lyrics. Even though Martin returns to the fold for one song (the fairly anonymous “Bigger”), his appearance doesn’t take away from the fact that, despite the caffeinated tempos, this album is relatively boring. Track after track of generic love (and anti-love) songs, with the only exception being the uncharacteristically horny “P.D.A.”, in which the fellas sing about being out in public with their “hands all on your booty”. While it’s certainly ear-catching, the guys sound like they’re trying too hard here, and come across as dirty old men in the process.
Then there’s an issue that’s always plagued the Backstreet Boys. These dudes are almost totally anonymous as singers. While Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez were blessed with fantastic and unique voices, and Britney Spears’ voice is so computer-manipulated that it stands out, these guys sound totally beige. It’s not that they can’t sing or anything, just that there’s no real character or personality to their singing.
While you’ve got to give BSB a little credit for not indulging their soppy ballad instincts on “This is Us”, it’s hard not to notice that the songs get better when the tempo slows a little bit. The two best songs on the album are the smooth groover “She’s a Dream” and album closer “Undone”. The former song has a pleasant, relaxed vibe with smooth harmonies that cancel out the inane lyrics (which are about how cool it is to flaunt your celebrity in front of your girl). It’s hard to stomach that this song was co-written and co-produced by (gulp) T-Pain. The latter song has hushed, dramatic harmonies as well as a smattering of real instruments. I have rarely been as happy to hear a guitar or piano in my life!
I can’t really say that I’m disappointed by “This is Us”…because I really wasn’t expecting much. The whole Nineties boy-band thing was never really my bag, and although BSB were able to pull some great singles out of their collective hat, they’ve certainly never made an album that was better than average. They’ll never be unique or distinctive singers, and today’s crop of popular songwriters and producers (excepting a couple like Ne-Yo) don’t really lend themselves to strong lyrics or melodies. So, what you end up with is basically the sound of a group that was never that good in the first place spinning their wheels. Even if you’re a fan, you’d probably still be best served keeping your ten bucks in your pocket.
Popularity: 1% [?]
New Music Review: Mariah Carey’s “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel”
It’s been a long time since I’ve even been impressed by a Mariah Carey album. “The Emancipation of Mimi” was heralded as a return to form, but how many people these days want to listen to that album straight through as opposed to just playing “We Belong Together”? Last year’s “E=MC2″, was a shameless regurgitation of the previous album.
So here we are, about 18 months later, and Mariah’s released another CD, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel”. First thing I noticed was “damn, what’s up with the nutty album titles?”. Second thing I noticed was “damn, those titties are like POW on the album cover!”. Third thing I noticed is that it was almost entirely written and produced by Mariah in association with production/writing team Tricky Stewart and The-Dream. These guys have had a pretty scattershot history with me-they’ve worked on songs that are undoubtable earworms, like Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and J. Holiday’s “Bed”. They’ve also come up with a few steaming piles of sh*t, like Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and two solo albums of nonsense from The-Dream himself. Was I prepared for a whole album of this?
So, here’s the verdict: “Memoirs” is not the complete trainwreck that I surmised it was going to be based on reviews and word of mouth from people I trusted. It could certainly be a lot better, although I think that has more to do with the production of the album than it does with the actual songs.
One thing I can’t get over is the fact that the album sounds so damn STERILE. It would be nice to hear a live instrument now and then, but this album is totally synthetic and canned. Also, “Memoirs” never rises out of it’s midtempo slumber. It’s more or less the same keyboards, the same processed drum sounds at several slight variations on the same speed. That’s not what Mariah’s long-time audience is checing for. People who have been following M.C. since back in the day are looking for a little meat to their music.
Mariah’s a fairly witty songwriter. She’s definitely got a knack for the kiss-off, whether she’s sneering “see right through you like you’re bathin’ in Windex” on “Obsessed” or cracking that “if we were two Lego blocks/even the Harvard University class of 2010/couldn’t put us back together again” on “Up Out My Face”. Hell, what other singer can you think of who would rhyme “Serato” with “model”, “McDonald’s”, “gelato”, “Picasso”, “soprano” and “me llamo”. Although her lyrics can occasionally sound like entries from a 14-year old girl’s diary, she’s also more than capable of coming up with a smart lyric when she wants to.
In addition to the tempo of the music rarely rising above a crawl, Mariah’s voice sounds sleepier than ever. The belt that once pegged her as one of the most powerful singers around has all but disappeared, leaving her floating back and forth between a whispery coo that stopped being cute ten years ago and that inane dog-whistle voice, which she probably uses more here than on any album since her debut. She also uses her lower register more than usual here, especially on the song “H.A.T.E.U.”. On this track, the plodding tempo and Mariah’s emotionless vocal makes it sound like she’s been slipped about 500 sedatives and then pointed to the mic.
Not to say “Memoirs” doesn’t have it’s moments. “It’s a Wrap” is a fairly sassy slice of throwback soul, while “Angels Cry” is a ballad with a very pretty melody and the most “pop” vibe of the album’s original songs. Then there’s “The Impossible”, a slow jam on which Mariah gets down with her man, a vocoder and some Jodeci and proceeds to make a song which gives off the vibe of some of the best bedroom soul of the past ten or fifteen years while not even being half as raunchy. However, that doesn’t make up for the bland anonymity of most of the other material, or the hideous chopped-and-screwed vocal effect that plays throughout “Ribbon”. It says a lot when the album’s best written song is 25 years old (for the record, that would be “I Want to Know What Love Is”, Mariah’s latest attempt to reclaim a Lite-FM favorite).
I guess there’s a part of me that’s waiting for Mariah to get it right, to put all the pieces into place and make the album that I think she’s capable of making. She’s exhibited flashes of brilliance on damn near every album, but consistently surrounds that brilliance with tons upon tons of humdrum trend-hopping. Whitney Houston’s recent “I Look to You” proved that there can be successful compromises when it comes to mature female pop R&B singers that can still make commercially relevant music. Ms. Carey, I think it’s time to play catch-up.
Popularity: unranked [?]
“Single Ladies”: Better Than Beyonce?
So, my buddy Kyle hipped me to this version of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”, performed by an indie pop band called Pomplamoose. Not being a huge fan of the original (talk about a video making a song 1,000 times better), I wasn’t expecting much, but these guys did a great job here. I am SO not a hipster, so even though I’m kinda rolling my eyes at the ironic vintage tees and the skinny jeans, I’m tapping my foot to this neat cover.
If you go over to their Youtube page, you’ll find a lot more goodness from these guys. I’m not sure where they’re based out of (why does something tell me they’re from Brooklyn?), but they’re pretty interesting. I highly recommend their version of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September”.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Friday Throwback: “State of the Heart”
I send you off for the weekend with a little Rick Springfield for that ass.
Rick was one of the first teen idols that I was aware of. My cousin Sharon had a massive crush on him. She would make sure to get home in time to see him play Dr. Noah Drake on “General Hospital”, and I can distinctly remember going to Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn and watching her buy a framed black-and-white photo of Rick in his leather-jacketed glory. I also remember him having very hairy arms in the picture. Interesting the things you retain…
The Aussie conquered the worlds of both prime-time TV and pop music for a while, scoring hits in the skinny-tie power-pop fashion like “Jessie’s Girl” (which actually beat Bruce Springsteen for a Grammy…I remember this!) and “Don’t Talk to Strangers” (one of my favorites). Synthesizers began to creep into his music over the next couple of years with songs like “Human Touch” and “Bop ’til You Drop”, and he released what I understand to be one of the incredibly all-time bad rock movies with “Hard to Hold”. However, 1985’s “State of the Heart” is a moody midtempo gem that gets overlooked when most people look at Springfield’s string of hits.
Rick’s vocal is expressive, moreso than his pained facial expressions in the video, and the song has a very cool instrumental motif, with that whacked out synth solo in the middle. This pretty much marked the end of the road for Rick, as he only had one more hit with 1988’s “Rock of Life”. However, he’s still performing today, even in his early Sixties (actually, a quick Wiki check reveals that he just turned 60). Still looks good too…better than most 60 year olds I know. He still makes and puts out albums and also returned to “GH” for a time, too. Anyway, enjoy the video, sorry about the subtitles, and have a great weekend!
Popularity: unranked [?]
Pearl Jam’s “Backspacer”: Goodbye Experimentation, Hello Rock ‘n Roll!!
After exploding onto the scene at the height of the grunge era, Eddie Vedder and his band Pearl Jam seemed to have lost the plot at the start of this decade with albums like “Binaural” and “Riot Act”-two sets that found their way into my collection…and very quickly found their way out. There was just too much noise and not enough melody for me.
2006’s self-titled offering showed a ray of hope, even if I haven’t been enticed to listen to it lately, and Vedder’s solo “Into the Wild” soundtrack was quite good-but it was an Eddie Vedder album, not a Pearl Jam album. With the arrival of “Backspacer”, the band’s ninth studio album, the million dollar question in my eyes was: does Pearl Jam still have it?
Well, folks-the answer appears to be “yes”. “Backspacer” is a concise (11 songs in 36 1/2 minutes), tight, well-written and well-played album. Musically speaking, the band has never sounded as eclectic while operating within a mainstream pop framework. The songs here aren’t deliberately obtuse like some of the band’s more experimental work. The hooks are strong as hell, and for the first time in a while (ever?), the band sounds joyful. I mean, let’s face it: PJ’s last two albums were very political and downcast as far as lyrical content. It’s nice to hear them lighten up and sound loose and relaxed.
“Backspacer” gets off to a running start with the uptempo 1-2-3 combination of “Gonna See My Friend”, “Got Some” and first single “The Fixer”. Particularly on the second of those three songs, Vedder sounds as intense as he did on PJ classics like “Go”, speed-singing the lyrics atop caffeinated guitar licks from Stone Gossard and Mike McCready. “Supersonic” is another speedy, punk-inspired rave-up (well, except for the tempo-shifting instrumental midsection). These songs aren’t totally dissimilar from the work PJ has done on their last few albums-just…tighter and more polished. You can credit the band for sharper songwriting and playing, but you’ve also gotta give props to producer Brendan O’Brien, who is back in the fold for the first time since ’98’s “Yield”.
For my money, though, the album’s best tracks are the mellower ones. “Just Breathe” is a slowly unwinding semi-acoustic ditty that would have been right at home on “Into the Wild”. The anthemic “Amongst the Waves” has one of those triumphant, fist-waving choruses that have become a Pearl Jam trademark, even though it doesn’t rock *quite* as hard as the album’s more uptempo offerings. “The End” is another pretty piece featuring Eddie’s soulful wail backed by a delicate acoustic guitar and a string section.
“Backspacer” is pretty much the encapsulation of everything good about Pearl Jam. There are hard rockin’ anthems, as well as songs like the thoughtful “Speed of Sound”, which is sure to follow in the footsteps of mellower smashes like “Better Man” and “Daughter”. Vedder is in fine voice throughout, the songs are immediate and not ponderous, and the end result is quite possibly the most consistently enjoyable album from the ’90s rock titans since their initial heyday.
Popularity: 2% [?]
CD Review: Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3″
Jay-Z’s been in a weird place these last few years, career-wise. After “un-retiring” in 2006, the rapper seemed to struggle to find his way. That year’s “Kingdom Come” was a credible attempt to make a “grown folks” hip-hop album, but it didn’t appeal to Jay’s younger contingent of fans and underperformed commercially. The following year’s “American Gangster” found Jay revisiting the hustling themes of his older albums and restored his position critically, although I personally don’t think it was much better than “Kingdom Come”. He’d been promising “The Blueprint 3″ for at least a year, tossing off a bunch of teaser singles that sounded, well…tossed off. To my ears, it sounded like Jay had lost his passion for rhyming. I wasn’t holding out hope that “BP3″ would be worth the money I would inevitably spend on it.
Surprise! Jay apparently regrouped at some point and came out of the studio with one of the stronger albums of his career. The production is uniformly solid, sounding right in the pocket of current radio trends without sounding like Jay’s trying particularly hard to appeal to a younger audience. Jay sounds rejuvenated on the mic; he hasn’t sounded this spirited and in love with words since “The Black Album”.
Every Jay album-even the best ones-have a few songs of fast-forward material, so what surprises the most about “BP3″-besides Jay’s renewed vocal dexterity-is that it’s a consistent listen all the way through. The only other Jay album that flows this well is the first “Blueprint”. The embarrassing moments on this album have nothing to do with Jay himself. Pharrell Williams delivers a lukewarm synth-pop beat on “So Ambitious”, but I’d give a pass to the song if it wasn’t for Pharrell’s God-awful chorus. “Reminder”’s insistent chorus is somewhat repetitious (and therefore annoying as hell), but Jay’s solid verses make up for the crappy hook. Other than that, there’s a forgettable verse (surprised?) by Young Jeezy on “Real As it Gets”, and the rest of the album is gravy.
Jay’s at his best when his songs follow some sort of narrative, and “BP3″’s standout tracks are the ones that focus on a subject other than Jay himself. The piano-spiked “A Star is Born” gives props to a string of other rappers. Jay even extends an olive branch to a few of the rappers he’s had beef with over the years. I wasn’t too keen on “D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)” when it hit the airwaves a few months ago, but it’s grown on me. It’s a back-to-basics Jay tune; straight-up New York boom-bap. Speaking of New York, “Empire State of Mind” is a loving tribute to Jay’s home, with a triumphant chorus from Alicia Keys.
Whenever Jay’s rhyming about himself gets a little tiring, the producers come in to save the day with hot beats. “On to the Next One” features a bassy, head-nodding beat flavored with vocal samples from Justice’s hit “D.A.N.C.E.”. “Off That” spotlights Jay’s awesome flow and proves that he can even rhyme on one of Timbaland’s more dance/pop oriented beats. Kanye West even digs up Alphaville’s 1985 synth-pop tearjerker “Forever Young” for the album closer “Young Forever”. Aside from the aforementioned “So Ambitious”, there’s not one bad beat on the “BP3″.
Two more things that stood out to me: Jay successfully experiments with his flow on “BP3″, whether overdubbing his vocals on top of one another on the dark, mysterious “Venus Vs. Mars”, or trading off lines relay-race style with Kanye on “Hate”. It’s nice to hear that even though he’s 15 years into his career and pushing 40, he’s still exploring what he can do with his voice. The album is also fairly devoid of guest rappers, with the exception of Young Jeezy’s yawner of a verse on “Real As it Gets”. J. Cole (one of Jay’s newest proteges) contributes an inobtrusive verse to “A Star is Born” and Kanye delivers some of the most entertaining verses on the album with his contributions to “Hate” and the smash single “Run This Town”.
I’ve gotta admit, “Blueprint 3″ was a pleasant surprise. It has a consistency missing from a lot of Jay’s catalog, and his rhyming sounds more focused, more joyful, than it has in a number of years. It’s not a stone-cold classic like the first “Blueprint” (that would have required Jay to do a little more soul-searching on the lyrical tip than he did on this album), but it’s also thankfully not the overambitious, disjointed mess that was “Blueprint 2″. What you get with “Blueprint 3″ is a solid, enjoyable album, which proves that even in his advanced age (in hip-hop years), Jay-Z is still capable of recording material that challenges his best work.
Popularity: 4% [?]
