Common – Universal Mind Control
Geffen
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Common has long expressed his disdain for being labeled hip-hop’s pre-eminent ‘thoughtful’ MC. The truth, for those who have followed his career since his 1992 debut,Can I Borrow A Dollar?, is that Chicago’s favorite son has always been more than the peace-and-love hippie hipster that most of the media or his post-2005 fans may realize.
But on his latest album, Universal Mind Control, the former Common Sense tries a little too hard to go against his reputation. Foregoing the soulful sound that has dominated most of his recent work, Common takes a sharp sonic detour courtesy of the Neptunes. This in and of itself isn’t a bad thing; but Common sounds unfocused and out of place on most cuts.
The chest-thumping of “Gladiator” tries hard to muster up machismo; but before, when Common got confrontational, it never sounded as inauthentic as this. And the party-and-sex romps of “Punch-Drunk Love” and “Sex 4 Suga” sound more calculated than anything he’s ever recorded.
On “Change,” a cut that was inspired by the victorious 2008 presidential campaign of Chicago’s own Barack Obama, Common sounds like his usual sincere and hopeful self; but a song as pensive as this doesn’t fit in with the sense of frivolity that pervades the rest of the record.
Fun is all well and good; but on Universal Mind Control, Common sounds like the sensitive guy at the frat house—awkwardly hitting on every girl he sees and trying too hard to prove he’s a party animal. – dusty culpepper
