Following his pivotal fourth album Like Water For Chocolate, which rounded out what is unquestionably one of the best and most influential three album runs the hip-hop genre had ever seen, the man formally known as Common Sense decided to spend a late night out drinking to celebrate, and to find an excuse to openly flirt with any woman he liked - after all, partnering with Erykah Badu meant his game was never being put to use anymore. Dang! Anyhow, the bar Lonnie (that's his real name for motherfuckers who ain't know) was sitting at that particular night happened to have on shuffle an odd mix of strange, experimental psychedelic rock music, synth-pop, and modern afrobeat, and it was after a couple of hours taking this in that Com had a brainwave. What if he took the formula for Like Water For Chocolate, and combined it with those three genres, and made his next official studio album out of that? Com immediately called up Erykah, who was all for it, and then he called up J Dilla, who was probably quite enthusiastic for making another album with Com, if it could potentially end up being as good as the last. And so, Electric Circus was born.
Or at least, we can presume that's how it happened.
Electric Circus, Common's fifth studio album, was released in December of 2002, and just from a small glance at the cover fans could tell that once again Common was about to come with something completely inventive and original, as he always seemed to with new records. Unfortunately, that doesn't make this album cover good - not only is Common's stare unsettling, but the incredibly varied colour scheme of this thing really is a brutal attack on the fragile eyeball, and as a result the idea (which is actually interesting) ends up being hidden behind this awful choice of design. Anyway, the actual tracklist looked rather odd and jumbled too. We saw features on pretty much every song, and all from seemingly different areas of music. Sure we had a rapper (Dart Chillz), but we also had male and female soul singers (Bilal and Erykah Badu), a hard rock artist (Sonny of P.O.D.), a pop artist (Pharrell Williams), an R&B artist (Mary J. Blige), a pop rock artist (Laetitia Sadier) - man, I could go on. This feature list was as ridiculous as Com's golf pants, and if it wasn't for the producers, who consisted of The Soulquarians and The Neptunes for the most part, then it's likely a lot of hip-hop heads would have even bothered to pick this one up. It appeared that Common had done what a lot of artists reaching true fame succumb to, and gone off his rocker.
Or had he? You see, while at the time this highly experimental record received about as much praise as Jaws 3D, over the years more and more hip-hop artists started to switch up the formula and create more experimental and frankly weird albums, and so inevitably this thing aged better than anyone predicted it would. But coming off of Common's incredible three albums before it, does it stand up? Let's take a look
1. Ferris Wheel (feat. Vinia Mojica & Marie Daulne of Zap Mama) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson & James Poyser)
Well, it's an interesting opening line-up, that's got to be said. The opening track on Electric Circus is almost three minutes of instrumental only with some female vocals singing in the background, and while that may seem like a recipe for boredom and possibly disaster, this track is actually pretty great. The repetitive melody played with some electronic sounding instrument (no, I don't know what it is, sue me) is pretty goddamn creepy, and the background sound effects and vocals all come together to create a mesmerising and incredibly intriguing album intro that surely gets any listeners nowadays incredibly hyped for the rest of the record. The transition into the next song is perfect too, and that is to be a theme throughout.
2. Soul Power (prod. Dilla, co-prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson & James Poyser)
The only song on this whole album to have no guests credited, and it's also one of the more conventional hip-hop songs, even if that isn't saying much. J Dilla provides Lonnie with a percussion and bass heavy instrumental that doesn't have a whole lot more to it, but perhaps that's for the best, as it leaves more room for Com to rip this one to shreds just like his vegan chicken drumsticks. This track is crazy, with Common dropping some of the wittiest and dopest bars of his career yet, including "I'd rather listen to silence than you holla" (sometimes speculated as a Ja Rule diss judging by the following line) and "I travel the globe with a black girl named Becky, Grand like Auto Theft 3. Style so developed, the law can't arrest me. You walk with blood on your shirt like Jesse Jackson". Not only that, but the sampling in the chorus is excellent too. He really didn't ever lose the rhyme, did he?
3. Aquarius (feat. Bilal) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, James Poyser, Dilla & Pino Palladino)
Quite possibly one of the top ten Common songs ever released. Yeah, I went there. This song is quite simply phenomenal, and I mean crab linguini levels of phenomenal here. Firstly, we have the production, where for once it actually sounds like it would need the four credited producers we have here. This beat is incredibly rich and astonishingly soul-touching - hell, this track should have been given the title of the previous song. The multiple musical elements all come together to create one of the strongest instrumentals of the 2000s decade, and when Bilal comes in with his weirdly high-pitched vocals on the hook it only makes everything even better. As for Common, he comes with one of the most passionate and well-written performances on the whole record, with both fantastic rhyme schemes and lyrics being showcased here. The way this song just builds up is just so wonderful to me. This is easily one of my favourite Common songs of all time.
4. Electric Wire Hustler Flower (feat. Sonny of P.O.D.) (prod. James Poyser & Dilla)
Coming into this record, I, as I'm sure most hip-hop heads were, was sceptical about this one, not only because of the feature, who is the lead vocalist in hard rock band P.O.D., but also because of the incredibly awkward and decidedly weird as a motherfucker title that invokes images of four completely separate and random things all together as one. However, this one is actually still quite good, even if not as much as the previous two songs. The guest star shouts the titular phrase (minus the "r" in "hustler") alongside Common, but doesn't do much else, and while this chorus (which is literally just that repetition of the title over and over and over again) is a little bit incredibly grating, the rest of the song is actually very intriguing. Over an instrumental that incorporates heavy electric guitars and is pretty solid, Common drops some nice verses with some conscious messages that go along with the content on his previous album (the line "live like a bitch then bitch you gon' die" notwithstanding). Common's performance here is great, as is the musicality. If only the chorus was better...
5. The Hustle (feat. Omar & Dart Chillz) (prod. Karriem Riggins)
Even though no-one had ever heard of him before, Dart Chillz stands as the only hip-hop artist to snag a feature on this whole record. Interestingly, every other Common album after this besides Nobody's Smiling would also only have one guest rapping performance, or otherwise none at all. Well, that's interesting to me anyway. This is another one of the more conventional and, shall we say, normal songs on the album, and so far it's probably the least interesting, even though it's still pretty good. The beat from Karriem Riggins (who would go on to become one of Common's most frequent collaborators in the 2010s and 2020s) sounds like a slightly richer version of something we would hear later on on Universal Mind Control, and the singing on here from Omar is just a wonder to behold. Common's verses are dope too, and Dart Chillz proves to be a more than competent rapper who seems to have been completely forgotten about after popping up on here, which is a shame. Anyway, this track is really dope, and with slightly better instrumentation it could have been one of the best here.
6. Come Close (feat. Mary J. Blige) (prod. The Neptunes)
7. New Wave (feat. Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, James Poyser & Dilla)
Upon initial listening of the album (which took place about a year ago I believe), this was actually my favourite song on the whole record, and I can still see why today. This is just so different, and especially for Common. The synthy and pounding instrumental during the verses is incredibly hardcore, and Common compliments this by dropping the most aggressive verses up to this point in his career outside of those on "Heidi Hoe" and "The Bitch In Yoo". "Loud like shots that come from the glock" - I mean, never in a million years would I have predicted that Common would say that on this album, and it's all the better for it. The music completely switches up for the chorus, but it's equally dope there too, as Laetitia Sadier sings some angelic melodies whilst Com hypes her up in the background. Man, this is still one of the best tracks on the whole LP. Nice stuff.
8. Star *69 (PS With Love) (feat. Bilal) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, James Poyser & Dilla)
This track is most famous for including instrumentation from Prince of all people, but unless you're a superfan of his then I would advise that you skip this one. Why, you ask? Because it's whack. Yeah, the change in quality from the previous few songs to this one is heavily noticeable, and I must say it's a shame the album couldn't keep up it's good run forever. Not every experiment works though, and whether it's the miserably dull instrumental, painfully awkward chorus or Common's uninspired verses, there's something for everyone to fucking despise about this one. Yeah, I really don't like this song.
9. I Got a Right Ta (feat. Pharrell Williams) (prod. The Neptunes)
10. Between Me, You & Liberation (feat. Cee-Lo) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, James Poyser, Dilla & Pino Palladino)
On this one, Common completely abandons the funny chap we saw on the last song, and instead approaches this track with three depressing yet in the end heartwarming tales that are all equally gripping. The first tells the story of a woman whom he was seeing and had just finished making love with, only for her to break down in front of him over trauma from her childhood. The second verse talks about an aunt who contracted cancer and eventually died after she decided to end the suffering and stop taking the pills, and then the third tells of one of Com's close friends coming out of the closet - a revolutionary verse for the man who stated "I heard rumours of gay MCs, just don't come around me with it" on his last album. The three verses tell tales of sadness, but in the end each of them show how the experiences further connected Common and the subject, and served to make everything better in the end. It's unfortunate, then, that the instrumental on here is rather dull in all honesty, and I really can't stand the Cee-Lo Green hook. The best part about this musically has to be the flute solo at the end, which is quite beautiful. I try to like this one, I really do, but unfortunately Common's tales aren't enough to carry the dull musical elements.
11. I Am Music (feat. Jill Scott) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, James Poyser, Dilla, Pino Palladino & Jeff Lee Johnson)
Does exactly what it says on the tin, really, as on this one Common personifies himself as music, and lists some of the influences it has had on people, culture and just the world in general. The verses on this one are easily some of the most impressive on this whole project, and this instrumental stands up to the task by being unquestionably weird, and at the same time impressive as a one armed handstand, with incredible brass instrumentation and a great drum groove to keep things flowing. It's one of the better tracks on the album musically and lyrically, and to top things off Jill Scott provides a heavenly hook that's also wonderfully catchy. This was an interesting experiment, but one that works in every possible way. A classic song.
12. Jimi Was a Rock Star (feat. Erykah Badu) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, James Poyser, Pino Palladino & Jeff Lee Johnson)
It was seemingly inevitable that there would be a song here with no rapping on it - what's odd is that it's taken us this long to get to it (well, we're not counting the intro here). On this one, Common and his then-girlfriend (who is said to have had massive influence on the musical direction of this project) Erykah Badu perform a slightly creepy but mostly bloody boring duet over some increasingly loud and heavy music that lasts for eight goddamn minutes. I suppose this is a tribute to the late Jimi Hendrix, and that is sweet, but unfortunately this song is way too long, boring and directionless to ever be considered good in my book. Maybe rock fans like this one, but as a hip-hop head I really can't get through it.
13. Heaven Somewhere (feat. Omar, Cee-Lo, Bilal, Jill Scott, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu & Lonnie "Pops" Lynn) (prod. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, James Poyser & Pino Palladino)
The finale of this album appears to be a bringing together of about half of the previous collaborators on this record, as well as Common's dad because he shows up on every Com album (up until 2014's Nobody's Smiling - R.I.P. to Lonnie "Pops" Lynn). I can't ever really force myself to give a shit about this one - like the last song, there isn't any rapping, and Common only delivers a bit of spoken word at the beginning about a French rapper who called him up to say he needed to rap with Com right then because he had accidentally killed two people by setting fire to a doormat, and would likely be going to prison for a long time. This is a true story. While that is quite interesting and rather sad, the rest of this song features a lot of meaningless singing over boring instrumentation about Heaven, which I'm not sure if I really believe in anyway. The bit with Lonnie was nice and short, though, and I like the return of those creepy keys from the intro, which come in at the very end, so at least it ends on a high note. Still, there's absolutely no way I can justify this being ten minutes long. I mean, that's just ridiculous!
Overall, Electric Circus was very nearly a masterpiece of an album, but unfortunately Common's experimentation got the better of him at the end, meaning I very rarely play those last two songs at all, as they are ridiculously long and frankly rather boring. If this album was only 11 tracks (and that's not too short - take a look at the tracklist of Be), then it would probably have more of a case to be a 2000s classic, and would be heralded as one of the best experimental hip-hop records of all time. Yeah, I mean it. The rest of this record is absolutely incredible. Sure, there are some songs that I don't like personally (especially "Star *69 (PS With Love)"), but even so I understand how they would appeal to others, and as for the better songs here, they are some of the best I have ever heard from both Common, and from the first half of the 2000s in general. Starting with the production, it's incredible. Drums are always banging on this thing, as are the basslines, but the main thing about it is how many instruments they included on this record, and how varied the sound therefore is. From the guitar on "Aquarius" to the brass on "I Am Music" to the keys on "Ferris Wheel", the varied instruments turn this into such a fantastic and atmospheric listen. Then, we have the features, which are frequently utilised to perfection. Bilal, Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott and Laetitia Sadier all deliver some fantastic singing performances that compliment the music perfectly, and even the lone guest MC Dart Chillz does his thing. The features on here (this is discounting the last two songs) are largely great, and even the weaker ones (Cee-Lo, Sonny, Bilal on "Star *69") don't necessarily detract from the music or Common's verses. And that's where we come to Com. On his next album, he would famously state: "they say a nigga lost his mind, but in the scheme of things I never lost the rhyme", and he was right. Common's rapping on here is often as potent as it was on his last couple of records, and even with some of the best and richest musical backing I've heard, he still shines through on every song, especially on tracks such as "I Am Music", "New Wave" and "Soul Power", where his verses are just impeccable. Yes, this album has some clear issues when you're getting towards the end, but nonetheless the majority of this album is fantastic and incredibly interesting, and fans of Common or The Soulquarians, or just experimental hip-hop in general, should definitely check this out. Don't be fooled by the cheap looking album cover - this music is as expensive as it gets.
Best Tracks: Ferris Wheel, Soul Power, Aquarius, Electric Wire Hustler Flower, The Hustle, Come Close, New Wave, I Got a Right Ta, I Am Music
Worst Tracks: Star *69 (PS With Love), Jimi Was a Rock Star, Heaven Somewhere
Catch up on other equally incredible Common albums (or rather their reviews) here!
No comments:
Post a Comment