Late Registration
KANYE WEST
Roc-A-Fella
It sounds silly in retrospect, but The College Dropout seemed to come out of nowhere. Who was this kid, rapping about a car accident in a tone that alternated between self-deprecating and mournful? While Kanye West didn't invent soulful rapping, he was probably the first artist since the Fugees to be seen doing it on MTV. This has made expectations for his follow-up ridiculously high, and robs his work of the element of surprise that so colored his debut. So, how does the Time cover boy fare?
Considering West began his career as a producer, it's no surprise that his primary strength here is musical. "Drive Slow" hypnotizes with mellow drums, a Hank Crawford saxophone sample and rattling percussion. Jon Brion — famous for his work with Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann — adds orchestral flourishes to several tracks. "Touch the Sky" most resembles the music from Dropout, but was actually produced by Just Blaze, with a dynamic sample ripped from Curtis Mayfield.
On the rapping and lyrics tip, West doesn't have the buttery delivery of Jay-Z. But I've heard few rhymes that better expose hip-hop's contradictory obsession with capitalist excess than this: "Little is known of Sierra Leone/ And how it connect to the diamonds we own." So succinct, so simple and so crucial. That's from "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)," a track that overshadows everything else here.
And that's what keeps this record from exceeding its predecessor. "Through the Wire" was the finest song on Dropout, but you could still listen to the album and almost forget it was on there. "Diamonds" just dominates.
Registration contains some serious missteps as well: "We Major" drones on for seven worthless minutes, and I just cannot tolerate the celebrity whine-fest that is "Bring Me Down."
Still, the good stuff here is really, really good. 3.5 stars.
Cooper Lane Baker
Gutter Phenomenon
EVERY TIME I DIE
Ferret Music
There's been considerable buzz surrounding this upstate New York metalcore combo's latest full-length, and this time it's not just a matter of marketing. Though not preconception-shatteringly original (what is in metal these days?), when held up against the backdrop of the rest of the Screamo Army — a scene that's already lapsing into self-parody — Gutter Phenomenon seems downright visionary. Its combination of psychotic arrangements, black humor and utter relentlessness splits the difference between the demented charisma of fellow New Yorkers Glassjaw and the blueprinted cacophony of early Dillinger Escape Plan, going further without ever going too far or abandoning the visceral for the overly calculated. Every Time I Die plays Ybor City's Masquerade on Saturday, Sept. 17. (www.ferretstyle.com) 4 stars. SCOTT HARRELL
Sucking in the Seventies
THE ROLLING STONES
Virgin/EMI
I didn't think they sucked 'til the '80s. Let's just say they didn't completely suck 'til the '80s. This reissue of a compilation of latter '70s songs includes some worthy stuff ("Shattered," "Beast of Burden," sturdy live versions of "Mannish Boy" and "When the Whip Comes Down"), some quasi-disco treacle ("Hot Stuff," the wretched "If I was a Dancer") and other odds and ends, none of it revelatory. The music here doesn't completely suck, although there are scads of other Stones comps with more merit than this. (Try Made in the Shade, re-released in the same batch.) We can only presume that the title was intended as double entendre. 3 stars. ERIC SNIDER
Humming By the Flowered Vine
LAURA CANTRELL
Matador
Nashville-born, Columbia University-educated Laura Cantrell explores the parallels and contradictions of the rural and the urban on this, her third, CD. "14th Street" is sublime country pop, with references to New York geography, while "Khaki & Corduroy" reflects on the disorientation of coming from a small town to the city. "Letters," a cover of an obscure Lucinda Williams demo, is also themed around dislocation from one's roots. Cantrell's vocals are immaculate throughout, and while the album consists of about 50-50 covers and originals, her own songs are easily on par with the others. In a sentence: Cantrell deserves to be part of the top tier of alt-country. 4 stars. Cooper Lane Baker
Juju Music
KING SUNNY ADÉ AND HIS AFRICAN BEATS
Mango/Island
When this LP slipped onto shelves in the early '80s, it touched off a wave of interest in world-beat throughout the U.S. Within a couple of years, American labels were pushing everything from Andean folk to zouk. JuJu Music spurred a lifelong interest in world music in me, as well, and remains one of my favorite discs of any ilk. The juju genre, native to Adé's Nigeria, is built around the undulating rhythm and swooping melodicism of talking drums, overlayed with interlocking guitar licks, call-and-response vocals (sung in Yoruban) and periodic echoey pedal steel, which swoops in as if from another world. Hey, it's 23 years later, but it's not too late to let this mesmerizing music works it mojo on you.
ERIC SNIDER
This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2005.