man o man does the winter of '03 feel like a long ass time ago. you know what i used to do back then when i got bored with what i was listening to? i would go to the virgin (formerly tower) surperstore on the corner of mass ave. and newbury st. in the back bay, and go upstairs to the lisenting stations to find some real obscure shit. i would give every track on every album a couple seconds chance. if a track caught me, i'd listen to most of the album, and if the album caught me i'd buy it. nice process, eh? nice way to blow an afternoon and like sixty bucks. goddamn i miss college. how the hell are you going to find that much free time in this bullshit work day and age. what a fucking waste. but i digress. one of the albums i found back then was this one. K-Os. and god what gem. i recently rediscovered this album and am ashamed i let it slip from my consciousness for so long.
its hard to review an album like this without drawing comparisons that might unfairly bias some people. it would be so easy to say "this sounds like so and so only better" but then you might say "well i don't like so and so" and not give the album a chance. and this album definitely deserves a chance.
the best way to describe the album might be by transcribing the intro. its in the form of a mock radio interview, and all you hear is the opening question. the interviewer says: "hey this is (blah, blah) welcome back to the (blah blah) show. during the break we were talking about the record, you know, cause i listened to the record and you got rock n'roll, you got R&B, some hip-hop, my question to you, just tell me with all this different stuff on this one record, you know, what is it?" and then BAM! they show you. this sick clean electric guitar riff kicks in and K-Os starts rhyming. and after the first part of the first verse the beat busts in and man...its good. its just bass, drums, guitar, and some, god i don't even know what that is. some kind of fuzzed out organ? who knows. but its tasty. very laid back and grooving.
and when this delicious study in jazzy hip-hopology ends what happens? track 2 'Call Me' kicks in on full blast with drum and bass up front and another clean electric guitar line plucking through the background. all of it bathed in these beautifully warm orchestral strings. K-Os starts singing in a way i can't really describe. his vocal style on this track is very reggae influenced, but the track is some kind cross between R&B and emo rock.
track 3 'Heaven Only Knows' is acoustic hip-hop. just an acoustic guitar playing a choppy chord progression and an upright bass plucking a line, and a cello BOWING in just the ideal spots. all with K-Os rhyming. god its so stripped down it could get boring, and then just a couple notes on an acoustic piano kick in. and at the bridge you hear the reggae again. which is a perfect prelude to track 4 'Superstar Pt. 1' which is just all reggae: heavy chorus on a sparse trebly guitar with a thick horn section blowing a background riff over a liberally applied and chunky bass line.
god i could do this for the whole album.
okay.
time to get economical....a little
the rest of the album goes like this, in track order: hip-hop, hip-hop/R&B, R&B, R&B/reggae, R&B, FLAMENCO HIP-HOP I SHIT YOU NOT (i have to say, the acoustic guitar on this trick melts my brain a little. not just the playing, but the sound they manage to get out of it on the album), a rock ballad that is just awesome and totally out of left field at this point....if anything could be after the bulk of this album, a more mainstream old school hip-hop track, and finally, a disgustingly hot hip-hop track with a hard beat over a jazz sample that has the best flow from k-os on the whole album.
the album closes out with a remix of 'heaven only knows' that seems a little redundant but is interesting from a production standpoint given how richly orchestrated it is, and the juxtaposition of the stripped down first version of this track you heard.
finally, this is a very, very positive album. i'm sick of hearing people call someone like common positive. common isn't positive to begin with. but this album makes common sound like slim shady. the main themes are about the pursuit of music and art for spiritual and personal fullfilment instead of riches. many of the tracks are about this topic, but the album never gets repetetive or boring. obviously. it might seem a little simple or plain in its imagery to some people, but i think a plain message is exactly what k-os had in mind in making this album.
do yourself a favor and check this shit out
10/10
its hard to review an album like this without drawing comparisons that might unfairly bias some people. it would be so easy to say "this sounds like so and so only better" but then you might say "well i don't like so and so" and not give the album a chance. and this album definitely deserves a chance.
the best way to describe the album might be by transcribing the intro. its in the form of a mock radio interview, and all you hear is the opening question. the interviewer says: "hey this is (blah, blah) welcome back to the (blah blah) show. during the break we were talking about the record, you know, cause i listened to the record and you got rock n'roll, you got R&B, some hip-hop, my question to you, just tell me with all this different stuff on this one record, you know, what is it?" and then BAM! they show you. this sick clean electric guitar riff kicks in and K-Os starts rhyming. and after the first part of the first verse the beat busts in and man...its good. its just bass, drums, guitar, and some, god i don't even know what that is. some kind of fuzzed out organ? who knows. but its tasty. very laid back and grooving.
and when this delicious study in jazzy hip-hopology ends what happens? track 2 'Call Me' kicks in on full blast with drum and bass up front and another clean electric guitar line plucking through the background. all of it bathed in these beautifully warm orchestral strings. K-Os starts singing in a way i can't really describe. his vocal style on this track is very reggae influenced, but the track is some kind cross between R&B and emo rock.
track 3 'Heaven Only Knows' is acoustic hip-hop. just an acoustic guitar playing a choppy chord progression and an upright bass plucking a line, and a cello BOWING in just the ideal spots. all with K-Os rhyming. god its so stripped down it could get boring, and then just a couple notes on an acoustic piano kick in. and at the bridge you hear the reggae again. which is a perfect prelude to track 4 'Superstar Pt. 1' which is just all reggae: heavy chorus on a sparse trebly guitar with a thick horn section blowing a background riff over a liberally applied and chunky bass line.
god i could do this for the whole album.
okay.
time to get economical....a little
the rest of the album goes like this, in track order: hip-hop, hip-hop/R&B, R&B, R&B/reggae, R&B, FLAMENCO HIP-HOP I SHIT YOU NOT (i have to say, the acoustic guitar on this trick melts my brain a little. not just the playing, but the sound they manage to get out of it on the album), a rock ballad that is just awesome and totally out of left field at this point....if anything could be after the bulk of this album, a more mainstream old school hip-hop track, and finally, a disgustingly hot hip-hop track with a hard beat over a jazz sample that has the best flow from k-os on the whole album.
the album closes out with a remix of 'heaven only knows' that seems a little redundant but is interesting from a production standpoint given how richly orchestrated it is, and the juxtaposition of the stripped down first version of this track you heard.
finally, this is a very, very positive album. i'm sick of hearing people call someone like common positive. common isn't positive to begin with. but this album makes common sound like slim shady. the main themes are about the pursuit of music and art for spiritual and personal fullfilment instead of riches. many of the tracks are about this topic, but the album never gets repetetive or boring. obviously. it might seem a little simple or plain in its imagery to some people, but i think a plain message is exactly what k-os had in mind in making this album.
do yourself a favor and check this shit out
10/10