COMMON: BE - WHAT ARE THE REST OF US MISSING?
who's making sense?
This has been nagging at me for a bit and David Drake's recent post about perceiving a Common vs. Mike Jones double standard got me thinking about this more, especially after noticing in this week's Week that they have Common's Be listed as a four star (their highest rating...I think?) based on the accumulative ratings from other publications.
So, on behalf of many other folks who I know share this same opinion: WTF?
Why is it that Be is being lauded not only as one of the best rap albums of the year but also the best album in Common's career? Are the rest of us missing something? Is there some secret alternative version of Be that half the population received that the rest of us didn't?
I'm not saying Be is a bad album. What I've said elsewhere is that it certainly has some strong songs on it; I like the economy of this shorter album; Kanye and Jay Dee make a good match with Common's lyrical styles; etc. On the flipside, there is some tepid, if not downright unlistenable material on the album as well and they make a questionable decision to put on a "live" version of one of the album's best songs ("The Food") rather than studio version which has far superior fidelity.
Moreover, when I've talked about the album with other friends of mine - including other critics - they've all had the same basic reaction: "it's ok" mixed with a shoulder shrug. That's not really screaming "ALL TIME CLASSIC!" in my head.
I'm not trying to pick a fight (well, ok, maybe a small one). I just want to understand what the hell people find so incredibly awesome about Be that they're treating it like some kind of resurrec...uh...some kind of miracle.
Break it down for us.
<< Home