Common’s review

Common
Universal Mind Control(Purchase)
G.O.O.D. Music/Geffen Records
3/5

Intro
In a strange turn of events, Common chooses an election year to try his hand at making an album for the clubs.

Universal Mind Control

The appropriately-named title track sees Common kicking a sped-up flow over an arrangement of robotic synths and hollowed drums. The pronounced up-tempo vibe is starkly different from Common’s signature sound, but this works surprisingly well.

Punch Drunk Love

The airy soul groove of “Punch Drunk Love,” one of nine songs produced by The Neptunes, sits somewhere between mellow and lifeless. Kanye West, who produced the bulk of Common’s previous two critically-acclaimed albums, is featured on the chorus, as if to detract from Comm’s atrocious lover-man raps.

Make My Day

Mr. DJ adds some light scratches to what otherwise sounds like a light-hearted Gnarls Barkley record. Cee-Lo features here with a catchy hook, but Common continues to kick some cheesy game (”you’re as sweet as an iced tea”).

Sex 4 Suga

The electro feel of this joint is an interesting touch, as Common employs a detectably old-school-inspired flow to…rap to a stripper? Yeah, it’s about as awkward as it reads.

Announcement

Common’s attempt to incorporate Biggie-inspired inflections in his raps plays off pretty smoothly. The production features The Neptunes in their simplistic niche, employing the base melody throughout the song, ala “Grindin’.”

Gladiator

One of the most effective attempts at “futuristic” production on the album – the song transitions from a low-key vocal loop to a RZA-esque arrangement comprised of a deliberate drum pattern, jazzy horns, and triumphant synths. Fortunately, Common’s most aggressive raps on the LP are also his best (”though I may have done ‘The Light,’ I don’t run from the dark// A dark night to spark mics, and start fights, the warrior art-type, like Kimbo Slice”).

Changes

Common veered off his normally socially-conscious raps for more than half of this album, but naturally, the first rapper to name-drop Obama in a song had to dedicate the requisite full-album joint to the President-elect. The result is a rather lukewarm moment of upliftment.

Inhale

The Neptunes employ their requisite sweeping synths to complement’s Common’s reflective mood. Common doesn’t quite grasp a real theme on this one, but his flow on “Inhale” is as sharp as it gets on UMC.

What a World

Likely influenced by Common’s European experiences, this House-influenced jam finds Comm convincing himself to make an uncompromising album of hit records. Apparently unable to get Kenna in the studio, The Neptunes have an inferior imprint signee, Chester French, add some guest vocals here.

Everywhere
Almost as if to reflect the disappointment of the album, the final, and arguably the best song on the album features very little of Common, and isn’t produced by The Neptunes. Comm does manage to drop a few bars on what sounds like a guest spot for a trippy British alternative song.

Conclusion

Although the Neptunes and Common have enough talent between them to mash out several good ideas over the course of the album, the pairing hardly ever meshes together effectively. Coupled with an obvious drop in lyrical quality from Common, Universal Mind Control sits close to the bottom of his impressive catalog. In hindsight, Common’s original plan to have this released as an EP during the summer seems the much smarter move, as the album features a few tacked-on conscious tracks that detract from the sound of the project.

Written By Samir Siddiqui

Tags: Common

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under Album Reviews. You can skip to the end and leave a response.