Common - "Electric Circus"

[claaa7]

01. "Ferris Wheel"
02. "Soul Power"
03. "Aquarius" (Ft. Bilal)
04. "Electric Wire Hustler Flower"
05. "The Hustle" (Ft. Dart Chillz & Omar)
06. "Come Close" (Ft. Mary J. Blige)
07. "New Wave" (Ft. Stereolab)
08. "Star '69 (PS With Love)" (Ft. Bilal)
09. "I Got A Right Ta" (Ft. Pharell Williams)
10. "Between Me, You & Liberation" (Ft. Cee-Lo)
11. "I Am Music" (Ft. Jill Scott)
12. "Jimi Was A Rock Star" (Ft. Erykah Badu)
13. "Heaven Somewhere" (Ft. Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo, Omar, Bilal & 'Pops')

[claaa7]

i noticed there wasn't a thread for 'Electric Circus', Common's second collaboration with The Soulquarian's production team (mainly J Dilla, ?uestlove and James Poyser). it was the follow-up album to his, imo, best album; the masterpiece that was "Like Water For Chocolate" (check my review in that thread) and this right here is extremely experimental and different - sometimes way too much for my liking. it would be interesting to hear what y'all feel about this LP too, i picked it up only first a few weeks back because of the bad reviews and it wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it might have been.

the album is creative to say the least and fuses most style of music one could imagine, including hip-hop, jazz, funk, pop, R&B, soul, etc. when it works it comes off as brilliant but when it doesn't it just falls flat as corny and weird (prime example: the 8 minute long "Jimi Was A Rock Star", a collaboration with Badu with Common singing)! lyrically Common isn't at all as good as on the last album if you ask me, the immaculate flow isn't on the same level. it's still a lyrically good album but when you listen to it you just know that Com is capable of more. a guess would be that the beats are not as suitable to rapping over as on previous albums which forces a decline in flow and delivery.

it starts off heavy with the 4 first songs, the instrumental "Ferris Wheel" intro sets the experience off lovely and the next 3 joints are more vintage hip-hop in atmosphere than the following tracks. "Soul Power" , produced by Dilla, is traditional boom-bap and is my favorite track off the album - Common's rhymes are as ill as on "Like Water For Chocolate" and the drumbeat KNOCKS. "Aquarius" and "Electric Wire Hustle Flower" are a lil' bit more experimental with electric guitars and live drums but nontheless in the realm of solid East Coast Hip-Hop (both songs produced by Dilla and James Poyser). the album takes a turn for the worse with songs like "New Wave" (which sounds dope at first but once the beat breaks down for the chorus it just becomes corny), "Jimi Was A Rock Star", etc. It isn't necesarily bad but it's too experimental for the fuck of it which is never a good thing.

[CharlesJones]

You posted a topic about this gay album? Hahahahahahahahahahaha. I stopped liking him after Resurrection. Fuck the rest of his gay albums.

[claaa7]

^ yep but you are extremely close-minded when it comes to hip-hop music

[Ghost In The 'Lac]

near classic

[fatboybrandon]

I see the descriptions for rating this album on the poll, mine is Good, but another I would call it is "interesting". The album is one that forces me to take a deeper look into the different unexpected musical styles he presents, rather than just expecting the boom-bap 4/4 hip hop sound.

I give Common props for putting surprises on the album and experimenting with sound, whether people agreed or disagreed with it. He pushed the envelope on LWFC and then further on EC.

The variety of sound seems like a world all it's own, it feels like something I need to sit in a room and block out everything else to really absorb what I'm hearing. It has sort of a hypnotic, dreamy sound that I get from listening to long songs that have alot of musical changes on jazz fusion or psych Rock albums of the 70's. I can tell the production lends influence from that era and genres of music, esp the Hendrix song with Badu.

As time passes I think more people will discover the wealth of Electric Circus for it's depth, originality and musical variety, it's a good listen within the increasingly unoriginal climate of hip hop music.

[Deity Allah]

This was an album I hated with a passion when it dropped, but over the past 2-3 years it's been in rotation for me. This is one of the few albums that I can honestly say was before it's time and somewhat of a gateway album to the experimental sound that's more prevalent in today's hip-hop.

In my opinion this album and The Roots "Phrenology" paved the way for Andre to do what he did with "The Love Below" from a Hip-Hop standpoint. Not saying that Dre wasn't already on some next shit, but from the position that both those albums took so much heat from the media at the time that bout time "The Love Below" dropped, people were a little more receptive to this fusion of sound.

Favorite Joints are Heaven Somewhere, Soul Power, Aquarius, Star *69, Between Me, You & Liberation & I Am Music

Dope Album overall

As of now, I hate Universal Mind Control with a passion and I would consider that another "Experimental" album. Let's see how I feel about that one a couple of years down the line.

[CharlesJones]

Claaa7, your right that i'm close minded to hip hop because i won't listen to gay and weird rap like Electric Circus hahahahahahahahahaha. LOL@The Franchise calling Electric Circus a classic hahahahahahahahaha. Your opinion don't mean shit to me The Franchise since your a Bone Thugs fan LOL. You probably like every album Bone Thugs has done because i never hear you diss their albums LOL.

[CharlesJones]

LOL@gay clothes he wore in Come Close video hahahahahahahahahaha.