cosmicben's Full Review: Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too by The New Radic...
A curious record. The New Radicals are simply Gregg Alexander, who, like most rappers, decided that an in-your-face pseudonym would put him across better than his real name. Whatever. He's another guy in the Ben Folds mold: insanely talented, but prone to being grossly misguided in the artistic sense, which leads to several tracks having spoken-word voice-overs that make absolutely no sense -- not to mention the whole record beginning with a girl saying "Make my nipples hard, let's go!"
Am I missing the point? He's pushing a message, as evidenced by the title and the cover -- I guess the bar code on his shoe is saying that we're all commodities, or we're all victims of corporate America, or his shoes are cooler than ours, or something -- and nearly all the songs vaguely reflect that message.
His lyrics are provocative, but only in the way that UF's campus preachers are: lots of flashy imagery that doesn't add up to a message I care about when I stop listening. Not to mention the cliches, bad poetry, and misspelling Amelia Earhart's name in the lyric booklet. He's a production savant, but unfortunately in the Puffy sense: a perfect sound with very little hint of personality.
All of which is a terrible shame, because at his core, Alexander is one of the most interesting musical forces to come out of the nineties: his lyrics are absurd, but his sincerity is undeniable; his voice can get grating, but it's also flexible and emotive; and his melodies are breathtaking, resulting in a powerful riff tune (the hit "You Get What You Give", unfortunately featuring an infantile rant in the middle), lots of midtempo rock songs with gorgeous hooks and pretty verses ("In Need Of A Miracle" is the best), and maybe the most beautiful, emotionally transparent rock ballad of the decade ("Someday We'll Know").
Rambling title track aside, every song has something nice going for it, and every one has cringe-worthy lyrics and production tricks that can be downright incoherent; it all makes for a very mixed bag, but given the moments of true beauty scattered throughout, I still say it's a shame that this was his first and last album.
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