26th November - The Roots' Phrenology

Artist – Album: The Roots - Phrenology

Released: 26^th November 2002

Sounds Like: Head music

Last month we went to the Museum of Science & Industry to visit the new brains exhibition (that is, a new exhibition about brains and not an exhibition about new brains…). Now, I’m not really sure what fun things we were expecting from the grey subject matter, but I don’t think either of us imagined that it could be so harrowing and depressing. Amongst the horrors of trepanning and Nazism, the confining of people suffering from microcephaly to freak shows and the gore of the operating table, we learnt about phrenology, a popular pseudo-science in the 19^th and early 20^th century which purported that the shape of the skull and head could be used to determine intelligence and character. Colonial Europeans used phrenology to persecute races they had “proven” their superiority over. The whole exhibition was, quite literally, mental.

The Roots are clever guys (despite having the sloping brow and cranial bumpage of career criminals) and I’ve taken the fact that they have named their fifth album Phrenology as a warning to avoid stereotyping them as regular hip hop or R&B artists, rather than some sort of ill-advised attempt to reignite scientific racism. Black Thought, ?uestlove and co flit between genres with the energy of crackling synapses: ‘Rock You’ is, unsurprisingly, hard rock, ‘!!!!!!!!’ is a punky soundbite, ‘Break You Off’ is smooth neo-soul and ‘The Seed (2.0)’, well, “we’ll name it rock and roll”. All is achieved with an expertise and exciting experimentalism that few in the early millennium Neptunes-dominated hip hop scene could match, and the album is a clear influence on contemporary stars such as the New Orleans brainbox Frank Ocean.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Phrentrow – 0:18

2.       Rock You – 3:12

3.       !!!!!!! – 0:24

4.       Sacrifice – 4:44

5.       Rolling with Heat – 3:42

6.       WAOK (Ay) Rollcall – 1:00

7.       Thought @ Work – 4:58

8.       The Seed (2.0) – 4:27

9.       Break You Off – 7:27

10.   Water – 10:24

11.   Quills – 4:22

12.   Pussy Galore – 4:29

13.   Complexity – 4:47

14.   Something in the Way of Things (In Town) – 7:16

Listen to ‘The Seed (2.0)’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojC0mg2hJCc

Also released on the 26^th November:

1965: The Kinks – The Kink Kontroversy

2nd April - Maxwell's Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite

Artist – Album: Maxwell – Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite

Released:  2^nd April 1996

Sounds Like: foreplay

In the mid 90’s the neo soul movement was born, finding success in the US - a little bit less so over here, we were in the inexcusable thralls of disposable teen pop and laddish Britpop - with it’s sophisticated re-treading of the soul and R&B sounds and stylings made popular in the late 60’s and early 70’s by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Al Green. The big hitters in the early years of this new genre included Erkyah Badu, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill and, the subject of today’s post, Maxwell.

Unlike his illustrious contemporaries, Maxwell was wholly unable to sustain his level of success and is largely now the forgotten man of the group, chiefly because he found it so hard to follow up this album with anything approaching it’s level of suaveness and skill. Because, on this record, Maxwell is one smooth, sexual motherfunker.

Whilst the general mood and tone of the album is agreeable but unspectacular, cool but unarresting, highlights like the wonderful ‘Ascension (Don’t You Ever)’, the scorchingly hot make-out song ‘…Til the Cops Come Knockin’’ and the not-a-Shakira-song ‘Whenever Wherever Whatever’ elevate the album to a higher plain.

Unfortunately, Maxwell was unable to maintain his stamina and subsequent rendezvous’ at the studio led to largely underwhelming and overly indulgent grooves. Still, he - and his many female fans - will always have his Urban Hang Suite to remind himself of his prowess.

Albumaday... rating:   7/10

1.       The Urban Theme – 2:42

2.       Welcome – 5:18

3.       Sumthin’ Sumthin – 4:18

4.       Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder) – 5:46

5.       Dancewitme – 6:15

6.       ...Til the Cops Come Knockin’ – 6:56

7.       Whenever Wherever Whatever – 3:45

8.       Lonely’s the Only Company (I & II) – 6:22

9.       Reunion – 4:53

10.   Suitelady (The Proposal Jam) – 4:48

11.   The Suite Theme – 13:47

Listen to ‘Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7rm9t5S4uE

Also released on the 2^nd April:

2001: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – No More Shall We Part