Redman
Red Gone Wild
Redman aka Reggie Noble is a self- acknowledged jokester, who wittily balances ridiculous weed-aggrandizing verse with hilarious social commentary. Known for his style of almost sloppy articulation that is deceptively precise, Redman barrels through the album with an abrasive pace to well-produced tracks. As primarily his own producer, Redman is able to control all aspects of his distinct sound, utilizing blues scales and big band shout choruses in production of very simple tracks. In fact, Red Gone Wild's most surprising attribute is that there is such a diversity in the sound of the tracks ranging from slap bass-heavy tracks to guitar syncopation-resembling reggae.
The lyrical side of the album is less impressive, as the stories of "Brick City" - weed and floozies mostly - becomes repetitive. This problem is alleviated somewhat by the slew of guest appearances. Calling on friends from Method Man to Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, Redman sets off to replant the world with marijuana. At the same time he slips in some hilarious perspectives on the despair of drug-infested urban projects with his skits. Yet he does so with the right twinge of humility by accepting this hard lifestyle to be reality, and by establishing that the best way to make it better is to make fun of it a little. Redman is distinct in that he's part comedian, part serious artist and part stoner. By mixing serious situations with a touch of wit, he has carved himself a unique niche in the industry.
- Alex Kwan
Joseph Arthur and the lonely Astronauts
Let's Just Be
Let's Just Be is the perfect example of pop gone wrong. Joseph Arthur had previously distinguished himself as a talented singer-songwriter and critic's darling on albums like the excellent Our Shadows Will Remain. Let's Just Be, however, is a disjointed, overlong mess that tries to do too much and fails miserably in the process.
Things start off strong. Opener "Diamond Ring" is an old-fashioned rock song reminiscent of the Stones. The second track, "Good Life," starts to throw up red flags, though, employing a minute-long intro of strange water sounds over incoherent mumbling, before finally starting off another decent retro rock offering. The rest of the album goes back and forth between soft acoustic numbers, decent pop rock attempts and vexing, failed deviations into Tom Waits-style experimentalism. The worst of this last category is a ten-minute-long song outro. It grates the ears and, awkwardly placed halfway through the record's massive 80-minute length, kills the album's momentum. Arthur should probably stick to what he's good at-brevity.
"Let's Just Be" is the last thing Arthur's producers and managers should have said. The album would have been vastly improved with some judicious cutting. This record is perhaps half an hour of worthwhile recordings spread far, far too thin.
- Rafael Garcia
