plorentz's Full Review: Universal Mind Control [PA] * by Common
Some albums defy our expectations of a certain artist so willfully that our only initial reaction can be to reject them outright. In the case of Chicago rapper Common’s late 2008 album Universal Mind Control, a warning was issued well in advance of the record’s (several times delayed) release that this was not going to be the Common of his previous two albums Be and Finding Forever, the first of which - the best album in a relatively long career of very good ones - felt prophetic and revelatory, a vitally conscious conflagration of love, anger, hope, sex, and spirit, the latter being an above average bit of like-minded water-treading: Common had seen the clubs of Europe and seen and heard, well, all the Euro-kids dancing to other people’s trash, and determined to assimilate his own sound to consciously woo the DJ’s of Munich and Manchester. At first glance, there was so much wrong with this proposed picture that at the moment of its dreaded unveiling, all many of us (myself included) could do was plug our nose, avert our eyes, and sing the alphabet song as loud as we could until the whole thing was over, crossing our fingers that by the time he released his next record, he’d have seen the error of his ways; the best that could be said of Universal Mind Control was that it was, clocking in at just under 40 minutes, short.
In fairness to myself, this is an album by a guy who had doggedly broadened the definition and deepened the possibilities of hip-hop throughout the 90s, diligently dodging the crossfire of the ascendant East-West gangsta rap battles to the undoubted detriment of his own bank statements; and then here he is in a song called “Announcement” – “This is hip-hop, baby”, he declares with totalitarian swagger in the song’s chorus – calling the music his bitch, and sounding every bit the ignorant, misogynistic thug we know he isn’t. At the culmination of the song’s final verse, he boasts, “Broads say ‘Are you a philosopher’ / Yeah, yeah, I philosophize on top of you”, an ugly and, ultimately, self-disparaging attempt at self-aggrandizement that found an unexpected and even uglier (given its context) echo when RNC Chairman Michael Steele (who infamously promised to give the Republican Party a hip-hop makeover when he was elected to the post, scarcely a month after Universal Mind Control dropped) responded to President Obama’s statements that he was looking for empathy in candidates for judicial appointments: “I’ll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind!” But at least Michael Steele has integrity enough to place himself squarely in opposition to Obama; on this record, Common has the audacity to place himself squarely in Obama’s company as an agent of hope and change (in a song called “Changes”) mere minutes after using his high-minded, hip-hop prophet image as a dildo.
At best, Universal Mind Control represented a serious artistic regression; but the album’s impossibly high double-entendre-per-minute rate (see the Kanye West guested “Punch Drunk Love”, which, in its defense, still has nothing on Lil’ Wayne), the sleazy electronics that have more in common with Britney’s Circus than Electric Circus (which, in their defense, give the album a sleak, sci-fi-futuristic finish that I love when it’s a Britney record we’re talking about), coupled with the cynicism inherent in the record’s concept, made the whole thing sound like an outright blasphemy. This is not “the new sh*t”, as he claims on the album-opening title track (set to an immediately familiar Neptunes-produced synthesizer percolation). This is not “radical” as he asserts so heavily on “Gladiator”. This is not “hip-hop, baby”, but rather the kind of hip-hop makeover that Common needed like Joan Rivers needs another facelift. What’s not to reject?
In fact, that initial knee-jerk rejection of the record has somehow, ironically, made it an easier record to defend, and, at certain moments, even like a little upon returning to it. Now part of that almost certainly has to do with the management – not necessarily the reduction - of expectations.
But regardless of expectations, it’s hard to deny the immediate appeal of a song like “Make My Day”, with its irresistible retro-bounce beat, and a sunny summer bubble-gum chorus sung by Cee-Lo over some old soul back-up singers that sound like they were recorded off of some warpy old garage sale vinyl. The mellow-as-vanilla “Changes”, with its twittering birdy sound effects, its synth-chimes, its faux-Philly-horn-sections, its all-about-the-children homilies, and “change is gon’ come” campaign promises, may sound like a disingenuous venture into social consciousness amidst all the fornication (seriously, man, one will.i.am is enough) – the song’s child-spoken benediction may, in fact, be the record’s most unforgivably cynical moment – it’s somehow redeemed by the wooshy atmospherics, the genuinely playful cowbells and turn-table scratches of “Inhale”. Meanwhile, “What a World”, featuring the up-and-coming production duo Chester French, matches a frenetic, jerky, 21st Century pop-punk chorus with a verse whose cadences come straight outta 1982, and the album-closing “Everywhere” sounds like an homage to Kate Bush, which is all good fun, even if Common’s rhymes on these latter songs start to feel like add-ons and afterthoughts.
Sure, the minimalist sleaze of “Sex 4 Suga” is fairly standard issue for a Neptunes production and sounds more like a (fairly decent) Pharrell solo track than something that should ever have landed on a Common record. Sure, the Biblical-epic boasts of “Gladiator” are set to an overbaked production that sounds like it was crafted for Madonna’s last record (from the tuba-bass-drum downbeats to the trilling jazz trumpets); and sure, the record’s motives seem questionable and distasteful. Sure, this may very well be the opposite of Be (debatable); but on the other hand, Common sounds far more engaged on this record than he did on Finding Forever (an album that seems to shrink in both scope and consequence with each repeated listen) and thus, Universal Mind Control, for all of its offenses (both real and perceived), is both more engaging (and fun) for the listener, and ultimately more memorable than its immediate predecessor. Common seems to understand that the only way to match (or top) the achievements of an album like Be is not to try to replicate them, but to do something entirely different with just as much commitment, energy, and bigness. He doesn’t quite do that here, but Universal Mind Control’s naked ambition, however cynical and regressive, makes it, to my mind (and deeply – alarmingly - contrary to my first impressions), one of Common’s better albums. Gulp.
- - - - - BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
“Universal Mind Control” by Common Geffen Records Released 12/9/09
Produced by Pharrell Williams/The Neptunes, with Common, Kanye West, Derek Dudley & Mike Chavez 38 min.
SONGS: Universal Mind Control – Punch Drunk Love – Make My Day – Sex 4 Suga – Announcement – Gladiator – Changes – Inhale – What a World – Everyhwere
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