Author: Jeff Giles (Page 13 of 41)

Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency

November 19, 2009 / Jeff Giles

RIYL: It’s a bit hard to say, really

The idea of any 72-year-old man supervising the recording of a hip-hop record is sort of ridiculous on its face, but Bill Cosby? The guy whose beef with rap culture’s profane streak has only deepened since being immortalized in Eddie Murphy’s “Raw” more than 20 years ago? The sweatered sitcom savior and Jell-O pitchman has made a second career out of delivering cranky missives to the black community, and from a distance, Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency looks like just another lecture about not dropping out of school, taking care of your kids, staying off drugs, and keeping your language free of all that awful filth, flarn, flarn, flarn, filth. Which it is, sort of, but here’s the thing – as a hip-hop record, State of Emergency is surprisingly sound. Okay, so it won’t win any awards for innovative production, and yes, it does include a few painful rhymes, but it’s far from the unintentionally hilarious train wreck you might expect. And even if he’s alienated some with his heavy-handed speechifying, this album reinforces the fact that his heart has always been in the right place. Still, there’s no denying that Public Enemy was pioneering socially conscious hip-hop 20 years ago – and delivering it with more passion, more style, and a more profound impact. It’s also hard, given Cosby’s career and strident reputation, to imagine who’s going to listen to this album with open enough ears to hear it for what it really is. It’s ultimately just a curiosity, albeit a well-made one; perhaps next time, Cos can use a few name-brand MCs to get his point across. (Turtle Head 2009)

Bill Cosby MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Hip Hop

Bill Cosby Bill Cosby State of Emergency Cosnarati

50 Cent: Before I Self Destruct

November 16, 2009 / Jeff Giles

50 Cent – nee Curtis Jackson – is one of the more brilliant entrepreneurs to come out of modern hip-hop, but as a rapper, the man has problems: He’s been locked in a sales slide since releasing his seven-times-platinum debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, in 2003, and these days, you’re more likely to see him in theaters (where he’s popped up in horrible movies like (“Righteous Kill”) or video games (such as “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”) than hear him on the radio. 50’s artistic confusion is reflected in Before I Self Destruct’s troubled birth: Originally slated for release in 2007, Destruct was bumped in favor of the roundly panned Curtis, then shoved all over Interscope’s schedule for months; no fewer than six singles from the album have been released since October of 2008, and tellingly, none of them have had half the impact of earlier hits like “In da Club” or “Candy Shop.” Whatever 50’s been doing to this album for the last two years, it hasn’t helped much: Whether he’s engaging in unintentional self-parody with ludicrous gangsta tracks or raging against seemingly everyone in his personal and business life, Self Destruct lacks any of the menacing, mush-mouthed charm that made him a star.

He’s clearly making a desperate effort to make up for embarrassing pop concessions like “Amusement Park,” but none of it works; the production (courtesy of top-shelf producers like Dr. Dre, Polow da Don, and Rockwilder) is as dull and played out as 50’s subject matter – his current single, “Baby By Me,” even samples his own “I Get Money.” Meanwhile, 50 himself strains to sound dangerous, but it’s hard to take tracks like “Death to My Enemies,” “Crime Wave,” and “Gangsta’s Delight” seriously coming from a guy who just debuted his first fragrance for men. His laconic flow has always been part of his appeal, but here, 50 Cent just sounds flabby and tired, and at 16 deeply uninspired tracks, Before I Self Destruct is a painfully long slog. Try to imagine the musical equivalent of being peed on in a rainstorm while an escaped mental patient with a speech impediment shouts at you, and you’ll come close to the experience. With a long list of movies in production and a contract-sealing greatest hits collection on the way, it could be some time before we hear new music from 50 Cent; hopefully, the time off gives him a chance to recharge his creative batteries. (Aftermath/Interscope 2009)

50 Cent MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Hip Hop

50 Cent Before I Self Destruct Headlines

OneRepublic: Waking Up

November 10, 2009 / Jeff Giles

RIYL: Coldplay, U2, Greg Laswell

OneRepublic’s 2008 debut was full of the kind of middle-of-the-road, calculatedly inoffensive pop that’s groomed for multiplatinum success – and it found that success, selling nearly a million copies and spinning off a Top Five single in the Timbaland-assisted “Apologize.” You’d think finding its commercial stride so soon would be the only excuse a band would need to churn out a carbon copy of its debut, but give OneRepublic credit: Album Number Two, Waking Up, actually represents a surprising step forward for a band that, just a year ago, gave no indication it was even ready to learn how to crawl. Make no mistake, the band’s stock in trade remains slick, pointedly proficient pop – but the band has gotten much better at carving canyon-sized hooks out of the barren bedrock of its influences.

There isn’t a single moment on the album that could be described as unusual or surprising – heck, maybe not even strictly interesting – and that’s exactly what makes it such an easy listen. This type of music derives its pleasure from smart adherence to pop formula, and OneRepublic follows it brilliantly; what it lacks in true creativity, it makes up in the strict discipline of knowing how to get from Point A to Point B – carrying a 500-pound chorus or three – without getting lost or messy along the way. Expecting great things from OneRepublic is probably unfair. But big things? You’re listening to ‘em. (Interscope/Mosley 2009)

OneRepublic MySpace page

Adult Contemporary, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

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Taylor Swift: Fearless – Platinum Edition

November 6, 2009 / Jeff Giles

RIYL: Julianne Hough, Miranda Lambert, buying stuff twice

Even by the record industry’s inflated, pre-Internet standards, Taylor Swift’s Fearless was a huge album, particularly for a teenage singer/songwriter on her sophomore release: in less than a year, it sold more than five million copies in the States, spun off a record-breaking 12 Top 40 hits, and provided some of 2009’s only tangible evidence that someone other than Michael Jackson can still sell records. All of which is presumably the only justification Swift’s label needed to join the obnoxious “deluxe reissue” trend by tacking on five brand new recordings, a “piano version” of album track “Forever & Always,” and a bonus DVD containing five music videos, four behind-the-scenes featurettes, a photo gallery, and the infamous CMT Awards clip that found Swift donning a sideways cap and rapping alongside T-Pain as T-Swizzle. It’s a ton of extra content, to be sure – and at Amazon’s loss-leader early price of $14.99, it’s a heckuva bargain, too. And it’s also worth mentioning that in today’s era of a la carte digital distribution, this kind of repackaging isn’t quite as crass as it was before iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 Store came along. Still, Fearless: Platinum Edition fails to resonate on two levels: first, although the new tracks aren’t bad at all, they don’t feel like missing pieces of the original album – which ties into the second problem, which is that at 19 tracks and almost 100 minutes of music, this is a bloated, unfocused version of a record that was pretty close to perfect as it was. Why not release an EP – or better yet, why not save these songs for the next full-length album? Simply to drop a piece of premium-priced product on store shelves in time for the holiday season, when Swift’s many teenaged fans can hit up their loved ones for a copy. Fearless still does a fine job of illustrating Swift’s gifts as a songwriter and performer, but this version just isn’t as much fun. (Big Machine 2009)

Taylor Swift MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Country, Pop

Taylor Swift Taylor Swift Fearless Taylor Swift Fearless Platinum Edition

Los Cenzontles with David Hidalgo & Taj Mahal: American Horizon

November 4, 2009 / Jeff Giles

RIYL: Los Lobos, Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder

Odds are you’ve never heard of Los Cenzontles (the name translates to “the Mockingbirds”), but they’ve been a major force in traditional Mexican music since forming in 1989. Twenty years and 17 albums later, they’ve teamed up with Taj Mahal and Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo (who also worked with the group on last year’s Songs of Wood and Steel) for American Horizon, a sprawling, 15-track concept album that, in the band’s words, “tells a timely story of immigration, work, and the American Dream.” Not the sort of thing you’re going to hear coming out of Sean Hannity’s car stereo, in other words, but if you’re looking for a beautifully moving collection of roots music that literally transcends language, get ready to spend a few weeks curled up inside the restless grooves of this album. You won’t be able to understand the literal meaning of much of it if you don’t speak Spanish, but don’t worry – you only need a soul and a pair of ears to be able to feel American Horizon’s bright strains of joy and sadness. Think of it as a sort of spiritual cousin to the Buena Vista Social Club, and you’ll be on the right track. Mahal and Hidalgo receive second billing, but don’t buy Horizon looking for flashy cameos; instead, their work here reflects a pair of careers spent knocking down musical barriers. It’s one of the most heartfelt – and purely interesting – records we’ve heard all year. (Los Cenzontles 2009)

Los Cenzontles MySpace page
Click to buy American Horizon on Amazon

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk, Latin, Rock

David Hidalgo Los Cenzontles Los Lobos Taj Mahal