Common – Universal Mind Control
The music sounds new. It’s really developing. I’m really happy about it. It feels good. It’s not really heavy. The Neptunes are producing a lot of it. Also a producer named Mr. DJ [is on the project]. He did a lot of work with OutKast. He did “Bombs Over Baghdad” and “Ms. Jackson.” These cats are really giving me some new, fresh sounds. I’m taking it somewhere vocally that I haven’t been before. I’m enthused. I’m really excited. - Common speaking about Universal Mind Control (via)
Common no doubt is a tad enthusiastic about his latest offering, Universal Mind Control. It’s different from the previous stuff released on albums such as Finding Forever and Be. He has gone from producing down tempo hip hop to cranking out an album full of booty shaking hip hop beats. Is it any good? Nah. It’s fairly awful. Every song has the same synthesized noise as the rest. The vocals are pretty rubbish and sound rushed in parts to keep up with a 100mph beat. It’s not what I was hoping for from one of my favourite hip hop artists. I’m all for guys trying to be innovative and challenge the norm musically but this is a well below par offering from Common.
From Entertainment Weekly:
Common seems to have traded his wit for dull and unimaginative narratives, and the 39-minute album has too much filler and only a few head-nodding jams (like the swaying ”Make My Day,” featuring Cee-Lo’s gut-grunting vocals).Universal Mind Control seems to move Common backward instead of forward, which for a lyricist of his caliber is truly disappointing.
Common has released Universal Mind Control as the first single (in somebody’s infinite wisdom they decided to disable the ability to embed the video, feckers). It’s produced and assisted vocally by Pharrell Williams from The Neptunes. Unfortunately all the tracks have far too much shakey shakey and not enough soulful bliss.
The only track on the entire album which is in any way reminiscent of a recognised hip hop Common production is Changes featuring Muhsinah on vocals.
[audio:http://www.album.ie/music/Common-Changes-Ft-Muhsinah.mp3]
Universal Mind Control is incomparable when confronted with a Common classic such as the So Far to Go track produced by the late J Dilla. If only all his stuff sounded like this..
