8 'The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 28, 2000
COMMON PROVES SWEET ON 'CHOCOLATE'
Since his 1992 debut "Can I Borrow A
"Dollar?" registered on the hip-hop radar,
Common has been a model for artistic growth.
By listening to his first three albums, it's easy
to chart his development. His first album fea-
tured lightening-quick rhyming at times. By his
third album "One Day It Will All Make Sense,"
he sacrificed speed for lyrical quality and
earned himself a spot along side Rakim and
KRS-ONE as one of the top hip-hop lyricists.
In his latest release, "Like Water For
Chocolate," Common continues on his path of
making creative music that also shows his abil-
itv to access the world around him, while in the
process creating an early nomination for hip-
hop album of the year.
For "Chocolate," Common enlists one of the
strongest supporting casts
ever to grace a hip-hop
Grade: A- album. The likes of
D'Angelo, ?uestlove, Mos
Conon Def, Detroit-based JayDee
Like Water for and his group Slum Village
Chocolate as well as DJ Premier,
MCA Records among others, demonstrates
Reviewed by his want to develop further
Daily Arts Writer as an artist. There aren't any
W. Jacarl Melton tracks produced by longtime
partner NoID, and Common
even admits that he moved to New York from his
beloved Windy City. Despite these changes, he
maintains a connection to his past that can be
found in the content of his songs.
The track "Heat" reminds loyal Common lis-
teners of his work on his debut album, with
rhyme speed being the biggest difference. The
lyrics don't pertain to anything specific but
serve more as a battle rhyme where he brags
about himself. "I'm the cream/Com' rules every-
thing," basically sums up the rhyme. One of the
most memorable lines is "It's a shame I have to
do white labels to keep my life stable," referring
to the situation where an artist is unable to
release their songs on a major label and have to
opt for a smaller distribution. Despite the lack of
depth, the beat Detroit's own JayDee ("Vivirant
Thing" and "Breathe and Stop") creates has a
bounce to it that's infectious and will definitely
get some people's heads bobbing.
"Dooinit" is another JayDee produced track.
The beat is a little less spectacular than the one
in "Heat" but still has head-nodding qualities.
The lyrics focus mainly on figures in the music
industry. Common has been known to attack
people or trends he doesn't like (see "I Used To
Love HER" or "The Bitch In Yoo") and
"Dooinit" serves this purpose. Possible targets
could be Puffy or even Will Smith. He doesn't
mention names but enough is implied to drawn
strong conclusions.
The standout cut that is attracting the most
attention is the DJ Premier-produced "The 6th
Sense (Something You Feel)." The track has
what it takes to become a hip-hop classic.
Needless to say, Premo does his usual by creat-
ing a track that only he can. The production
works perfectly with the style and subject matter
of the rhyme. Common focuses on what he does
the best, observing situations in life and then
offering commentary on them. The general topic
is hip-hop and the effect it has on people. "I start
thinkin'/how - many souls hip-hop has
affected/how many dead folks this art's resur-
rected/how many nations this culture's connect-
ed." Common's passion about his profession can
be felt in every word and every line making this
one of the best hip-hop songs to come out in a
while.
Switching gears, Common takes a much more
politically active stance on "A Song For Assata."
He retells the story of freedom fighter Assata
Shakur. He hopes to raise awareness on issues
pertaining to police brutality and political.
activism. He recounts the struggles Shakur, who
now is in exile in Cuba, and her counterparts
had to endure in the effort to achieve freedom
for themselves as well as other black people.
The most thought provoking and powerful part
of the song is when a tape recording of Shakur
defining freedom is played. "I know a whole lot
more about what freedom isn't than what it is
because I have never been free." Common does
an excellent job in giving his audience a history
lesson and the strings backing him up make it all
that more powerful.
To date, "Like Water For Chocolate" may be
one of the best major label releases so far this
year. Though there are tracks that are less impres-
sive than others (see "A Film Called 'Pimp"'),
they do not detract from the overall effort. If the
beats are weak, which they rarely are, the lyrics
make up for it, and vice versa. So it seems as if
Common's gamble to move farther away from
his realm of the familiar (NoID and Chicago)
has had no dire consequences. Now one has to
wonder, what is next for the man who may be the
best MC today? Only the future knows.
makes the group
Grade: A-
Pantera
Reinventing the Steel
EastWest Records
Reviewed by
Daily Arts Writer
David Reamer
come off as both
cocky (four plat-
inum albums
will have that
effect) and
approachable by
their legions of
fans. So when
members of the
band unani-
mously claim
that this is the
hardest record
they've ever recorded, people tend to
listen. Of course, the band also
prefers to let its music speak for
itself.
The music on "Reinventing the
Steel" says more than words ever could.
While the band has obviously matured
over the past four years, they have not
slowed the pace of their thrashing.
Dimebag Darrell's guitar riffs scream
loud enough to make cars bleed; Vinnie
Paul's breakneck backbeats are as
feverish as ever; Rex Paul's basslines
set a headbanging pace; and Anselmo's
angst-ridden vocals haven't lost an
ounce of emotion.
Songs like "Goddamn Electric"
and "Yesterday Don't Mean Shit"
show that Pantera isn't relying on its
name to. get by. Even though the
songs look back on lost youth and
past success, they make it clear that
the band is firmly grounded in the
present, and rocking hard. These
Pantera 'reinvents its
crunchy thrash-metal.
For a significant number of music
fans, the name Pantera is synony-
mous with heavy metal, and for the .4
last four years. Pantera has been
absent from the music scene. Now,
as frontman Phil Anselmo proclaims
with the release of "Reinventing the
Steel": "Our fans can breathe ... easy f'
- We're back." Pantera is back, and "
to many people, including the band,
that means heavy metal is back, too.
The members of Pantera have
always been proud of their straight-
forward attitude, both with the media
and with the fans. Somehow, this
tracks, along with less meditative
songs like "You've Gotta Belong to
it" are as heavy as anything the band
has released in its career.
The album's one major downside is its
length. With four years of plannin9
behind the project, one would think the
band could come up with an hour, possi-
bly more, of new music. Sadly, the
album's ten tracks clock out under 44
minutes, less than ten minutes for every
year that the band was out of the studio.
This may leave fans wondering just what
the band has been up to in the last four
years, since they obviously weren't writ-
ing songs.
For Pantera, the answer may just be
that quality comes before quantity, anO
"Reinventing the Steel" is prime materi-
al from start to finish. This, the band's
first self-produced album, shows com-
mitment and work above and beyond
that of your average metal band.
Pantera's attitude can perhaps be
summed up with two of the song
titles from "Reinventing the SteeL"
"Yesterday Don't Mean Shit" and
"We'll Grind that Axe for a Lon*
Time," voice the band's beliefs about
their past and future. Not only will
Pantera keep grinding away and lov-
ing it, "Reinventing the Steel" shows
that the band's flair and quality won't
suffer with the passage of time. They
kick as much ass now as they did ten
years ago, and with any luck, they'll
still be thrashing in another ten.
Timony peaks on 'Mountains'
Anyone interested in the creative possibilities of
music needs to listen to the work of Mary Timonv. Like
many of the artists released by Matador, Timonv takes
the sort of poetic lyrics you actually would want to read
and adds a unique style of mellow guitar rock elevated
to brilliance by non-traditional arrangements and the
Grade: A-
Mary Timony
Mountains
Matador
Reviewed by
Daily Arts Editor
Jason Birchmeier
inclusion of pianos, synthesizers,
flutes, violins and other abstract
nstruments.
Many people may be familiar
with Timony's past work as the
brains behind the Boston-based
band Helium. The band generat-
ed quite a bit of buzz back in
1994 during the waning
moments of the grunge revolu-
tion with their debut EP, "Pirate
Prude." This masterpiece
prostitution. Though highly allegorical and bleeding
with feminist teenage angst, Timony's charismatic gui-
tar work and lyrics instantly caught the attention of
bands such as Sonic Youth, who were delighted to invite
Helium on their tour and to play at Lollapalooza.
Now six years later after less and less extreme
albums with Helium, Timonv has abandoned her dis-
tortion pedals, angry lyrics and even her band. Her
music still radiates with her brilliantly fantastic lyrics.
which now more resemble nursery rhymes than night-
marish allegories. Song titles such as "Dungeon Dance"
and "Rider on a Stormy Sea" are just the tip of the ice-
berg. Each song resembles the sort of fable that seems
childish on the surface but glimmers with deeper mean-
ing and allegory.
Her music has become equally as light-hearted
with a near abandonment of the distorted guitar
sound that made albums such as "Pirate Prude" and
"Dirt of Luck" such masterpieces. Instead, Timony
has turned increasingly towards the piano as her
prime source of melody while using the guitar
more as a shading tool, a subtle sound buried deep
beneath her vocals and melodies. Some songs such
as the opening track, "Dungeon Dance," don t even
use guitars while songs such as "Valley of One
Thousand Perfumes" use guitar riffs as the driving
force. In the end, whether one prefers the sonic
palette of guitar tone that Timony once practiced or
her new emphasis on melody, one cannot deny the
fact that this infamous woman knows how to write
brilliant songs that get increasingly melodic and
literate with every album.
Andy returns with
'Flood' of reggiae soul'
gleamed with some of the most distorted sounding gui-
tar-driven sonic ferocity ever captured. On top of the
monolithic fuzzy guitar riffs capable of making the
masses cower, Timony dropped a set of conceptually
linked fantastic ramblings dealing with vampires and
Detroit's own Esham goes national with new 'Bootleg'
During the 1970s, Horace Andy
was the Al Green of reggae vocalists,
his voice both powerfully gruff and
sweetly fragile. After fading into
obscurity in the 1980s, Andy resur-
rected his career by lending his voice
to several recordings by Massive
Attack, the British trip-hoppers
whose popularity among the college-
aged set gave Andy an entirely new
audience. But although his newfound
notoriety has led him in recent years
to re-release several of his 1970s clas-
sics, "Living in the Flood" is Andy's
first album of new material in more
than a decade. It's also a return to his
roots: Recorded at Tuff Gong studios
in Kingston, Jamaica, "Flood" fea-
The- infamous Detroit rapper
Esham has become a legend in the
rap underground. Since 1990 when
he was a teenager, Esham has been
releasing album
I after album of
Grade: B+
Esham
Bootleg
Overcore/TVT
Reviewed by
Daily Arts Writer
Jason Birchmeier
hardcore rhymes
with a harsh, self-
produced. style of
beats that often
take on the feel of
hard rock. Though
many outside of
the Detroit area
probably aren't
familiar with
viously unreleased tracks, only three
of the 16 tracks cannot be found on
previous albums. Instead of a collec-
tion of rarities, "Bootleg" functions
more as a sampler of Esham's past
work, drawing from the infamous
rapper's deep back catalog of nine
full-length albums and several EPs.
Much of Esham's early work on
"Bootleg" will no doubt shock those
unfamiliar with his ferocity. Songs
such as "Redrum" from 1990's
"Boomin' Words From Hell" are about
as hardcore as rap can get. This partic-
ular song samples the bassline from
Funkadelic's "You and Your Folks" to
give itself a funky yet rocking beat.
The fact that most of these songs are
composed of samples and were record-
ed on low budget equipment in the
early to mid-'90s also give them a very
rough and gritty feel quite unlike
today's polished hip-hop.
Another early Esham track,
"KKKill the Fetus" samples a dis-
Esham, he deserves recognition for
innovating the rap meets heavy metal
sound that has become the latest
trend.
"Bootleg" represents the first time
that Esham has partnered with a
major label to help spread his wicked
reach outside of Detroit. Though it
-paades itself as a collection of pre-
torted electric guitar for its beats and
George Clinton's monologue from
"Maggot Brain" to give it a very
creepy feel. Lyrics such as "My sui-
cide solution is a 38 revolver/ I'm
your problem solver/ Your life if full
of horror/ Some are born today and
some will die tomorrow" are down-
right gruesome and will instantly
alienate many, but keep in mind that
Esham seems to get a bit less wicked
on his more recent songs such as
"Outcha Atmosphere" and "Twerk
Your Body" from 1999's "Mail
Dominance."
The bottom line is that Esham is
just far too insane and dark for the
masses. His style of music - self-
described as "acid rap" - makes NWA
sound weak and Limp Bizkit sound
like the Backstreet Boys. Anyone out
there looking for some hardcore rap
with a deranged sense of reality,
Esham's "Bootleg" functions as a per-
fect introduction to a sound quite
unlike anything currently on the mar-
ket. Though not nearly as fresh as
Esharn's latest album as Natas,
"Www.com" - an amazing rap
album produced with real basses and
guitars - "Bootleg" should earn
Esham the respect and album sales
that he deserves after producing some
totally unique music in the shadowy
ghettos of East Detroit for a decade.
the Daily's archives
online at
ww w.michigandaily.com
Grade: B
Horace Andy
Living in The
Flood
Melankolic
Reviewed by
Daily Arts Writer
Christian Hoard
tures several of
Jamaica's top
session players
and revives the
soulful crooning
and laid-back
grooves that
characterized
much of Andy's
early work.
Since the
songs are a little
where politics is concerned. ThouI
he talks of "One love, one Jah, one
destination" in the CD's liner notes,
he doesn't spend much time dreaming
up scenes of Rastafarian utopia ,on
"Flood." The disc's title track, eo-
written by former Clash singer Soe
Strummer, finds him complaining
bitterly of poverty and moral corrup-
tion, his words conjuring images of
darkness and despair. (
"Doldrums," it's a good friend who's
drowning in the spiritual flood:
"Nothing special/an empty vessel/
seems to wrestle/with your time/In
the rain, you struggle to swim."
But because Andy counters the
minor-key darkness of songs like
"After All" with plenty of upbeat,
bouncy tracks ("True Love," "Right
Time") "Flood" is for the most part a
fun and energetic record. And in spite
of his occasional melancholia aO
anti-poverty vitriol, Andy suggests
that it's not politics that offers salva-
tion, but love - whether it's love for
your fellow man or simply the
dreamy, Lovers Rock stuff he sings
about on "Girl of My Dreams."_
lacking in memorable melodies, it's
the musicians' rhythmic punch and
Andy's consistently charming vocals
that keep "Flood" afloat. Clive
"Azul" Hunt's production gives
"Flood" a nice, hi-fi glossiness, but
unlike many dub poets of the early
eighties, neither he nor Andy try to
stuff too many sounds into each track,
instead sticking to the guitar-key-
boards-bass-drums format of tradi-
tional reggae for most of the record.
Lyrically, the 49-year-old Andy is
no youthful idealist, at least not
Breaking Records Grading System
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F - Natty Light
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