(Geffen)

808s and synthbreaks

It’s weird that Common’s still such a name in positive, conscious, girl-friendly hip hop even though he’s becoming a bit of a dirty old man. The opening half of Universal Mind Control is all about getting into ladies’ tight-fitting pants with lines like “I come from Chica so in I go” and “I don’t mind bein’ behind / ’cause I’ma touch you where the sun don’t shine.” Yeah, good luck with that, Common. Second single Announcement is all about hip hop, but metaphorically, with the genre standing in for another girl he wants to make his bitch. He’s always had plenty of goofy lyrics though, and fortunately the emphasis is on the music. He’s gone back to the electro-tinged sound of Electric Circus, which was a fine album even if his fans would rather he stick to the same old boom-bap for another eight records. This means that Make My Day, with a Cee-Lo feature, still sounds fresh even if it is yet another song about a girl. After the album’s halfway point there’s a turnaround with Gladiator, which compares rocking a stadium with rocking Sparta. With some banging Neptunes drums, wobbling trumpet, electro synth and a piano break with Pharrell on it he’s suddenly at the top of his game and firing on all cylinders at once. Great production and a couple of above-par songs only just manages to save him from his weaker moments – monomaniacal focus on booty worship, typically wack rhymes – however.

***     

JODY MACGREGOR

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