This Week in Music

OutKast
Stankonia

After dropping three platinum selling albums, the fourth is nothing short
of their previous releases. OutKast’s highly anticipated fourth album,
Stankonia is a journey into the land where the ‘stank’ originate from,
the dirty south.
The rap duo, Big Boi and Andre’ 3000, continue to bring new dimensions
to the rap game. The hit single “B.O.B.” is filled with a fast-paced,
shoulder bouncing rhythm while adding a choir like presence on the hook.
Andre’ 3000 raps:
Be what you wanna be as long as you know/ Consequences are given for the
living/ The fence is too high to jump in jail/ Too low to dig I might
just touch hell, HOT! … Stack of questions with no answers/ Cure for
Cancer, Cure for AIDS/ Make a brotha wanna stay on tour for days…
OutKast shows maturity on Stankonia, producing 13 of the 16 tracks on
Stankonia. OutKast has always been a group whose lyrics or songs were
more important than the revenue it produced. In other words, these artists’
music contains a message, a significant point. This fact is evident on
the first track, “Gasoline Dreams.” This song speaks of the dim future
for America’s people. The song symbolizes the burning dreams of people
in this country.
On the joint “Ms. Jackson”, OutKast is giving an apology and an explanation
to their baby momma’s momma. Ya’ll still following me right? Alright,
the message is simple and clear: regardless of how much you want something
to work, regardless of how hard you try, if it was meant to fall apart,
it eventually will.
Ms. Jackson is heartfelt. If you listen, you’ll hear Andre’3000 bleeding
through his pen. “King meets Queen then the puppy love thing/ Together
dream ’bout that crib with the Goodyear swing/ On the oak tree I hope
we feel like this forever/ Forever, forever, ever? Forever, ever… Ms.
Jackson my intentions were good, I wish I could/ Become a magician and
abracadabra all the sadder/ Thoughts of me, thoughts of she, thoughts
of he/ Asking what happened to the feelings that her and me had/ I pray
so much about it, need some knee pads…”
Big Boi flares up on his first verse saying, “My baby’s drama mama don’t
like me/ She be doing things like having them boys/ Come from her neighborhood
to the studio trying to fight me/ She needs to get a piece of the American
pie and take her bite out/ That’s my house; I’ll disconnect the cable
and turn the lights out…”
The OutKast sound is so unique; most rappers cannot add any flavor or
substance to their music. With the exception of the Dungeon Family, almost
all the other featured artists only bring the level of quality of Stankonia
down. (Oh, you didn’t know) This album is flawed. The errors fall somewhere
between the overly emphasized harmony hooks and the horrible, dull interludes.
On every OutKast album there has always been a song where you could just
kick back to and chill out. On Stankonia that track is non-existent. On
“Stanklove”, OutKast attempts to provide that same quality with a love
ballad intended for the lover in you. Truth is, they failed. I don’t know
anyone who would play this cut to “enhance the mood.” “Stanklove” is one
of the weakest tracks on the album. It kills all the decibels in your
ears for the century-long seven minutes.
The hidden gem on this CD is without a doubt “So Fresh, So Clean.” The
beat drops in scandalous, with a cool, little chorus, and on-time lyrics.
This song reminds people that the OutKast still got a lil’ playa in them.
The hooks boast, “Ain’t nobody dope as me, I’m just so fresh, so clean/
Don’t you think I’m so sexy…” Yeah, this song is for the playas and
the wannabe playas.
Tracks such as, “Humble Mumble (featuring Erykah Badu)” and “Red Velvet”
help balance the topsy-turvy album. Through the ups-and-the-downs, Stankonia
definitely guides listeners through the world of OutKast. Filled with
songs varying from young child births, Bombs Over Baghdad, and gangsta
music, Stankonia provides an earful of words on the issues of today. This
passage is a thought provoking, country trash talking, and ghetto love
telling journey. The ride is good, but not great.

***/5
- Brian K. Colar

Watching Tron can be as equally rewarding now, as it was when you were young;
the old-school computer generated landscapes, motorcycle races through digitized
mazes, and the music – the music!
Within the ten years of their existence, and with four instrumental full
lengths under their belts, Trans Am have conjured a certain reminiscent
quality of 80′s sci-fi film music (i.e. Tron, Blade Runner, Logan’s Run)
in their sound that could rupture any assumption that the synth movement
of the past ran dry.
1999′s “Futureworld” introduced fans to a fully loaded arsenal of analog
keyboards, robot voices, and steady as rock drumming that would sum an album’s
worth of fresh, thematic odes to the pre-millennial upset stomach. But the
Trans Am of 2000 comes forth with a more sporadic step into the waters of
the eclectic with “Red Line.”
The album’s worth of tracks comes in at a giant 21, with jumps into all
territories of the musical map. “I Want It All” serves as the album opener
that gives a nod back to sound of 99′s “Futureworld,” but quickly turns
its tricky head on you with “Casual Friday,” a short track that fills your
ears with the drumming circle that you may have heard passing the coffee
shop on any given night.
Other tracks, such as “Play in the Summer,” introduce Trans Am in their
most stripped down rock approach. Pushing clean, distinguishable vocals
up in the mix, “Play in the Summer” meets almost all of the criteria for
a “pop” song – with a cordial tip of the hat to Hendrix on speed pills.

“The Dark Gift,” Trans Am’s own rock opera amidst “Red Line” is the most
impressive display of the perfection to date. Clocking in at just under
10 minutes, “Gift” starts with Led Zeppelin-esque acoustic guitar, and boils
over into a fastpaced sitar/guitar/synth clam bake.
In all of the expansive glory that is “Red Line,” it is, perhaps, easy to
say that the album could have gone on without a few of its tracks. The crazed
drumming circle that greets you near the beginning of the record comes back
to haunt on quite a number of occasions.
“Red Line” never fully gives an answer as to whether or not wants you to
go to bed to it, rock it out, or just sit and admire it in all of its ambition.
And that’s just what it is…an ambitious record. But, in its 70 some odd
minutes of musical map quest, things do get a bit disorienting.
Above all, the record shows Trans Am in its most uneasy state, showing the
three piece stretching its limbs to new territory in an earnest attempt
to do what it they have always done- expand. “Red Line” is full of surprises,
odd time changes, keyboard mastery and, of course, Trans Am’s own stamp
of purposeful rock cheesiness. At least they still “wear their sunglasses
at night.”

***/5
-Trevor Naud

Is it just me, or do all of theses Icelandic female singers sound very similar
to one another? I’m not saying that this is a particularly bad thing, it’s
just that the only female musicians from Iceland that one hears anything
about are singers with cute accents backed with poppy electronics (see Bjork
and Gusgus vocalist Hafdis Huld). In recent years, however, Bjork has seemed
to shy away from the poppier side of things with her Aphex-like beat filled
1998 release “Homogenic” and the new classical style album she released.
Gusgus, meanwhile, has always taken Huld all over the electronic music map,
allowing her to show her abilities to vocally sweeten the group’s trance,
trip hop, and gothic ambient efforts, as well as their poppier material.

So where does this leave newcomer Emiliana Torrini? Right smack dab in the
middle of mediocrity, that’s where. It’s not that anything on “Love In the
Time of Science” is really all that bad. Some of it is pretty damn good.
It’s just that with the exception of a few jungle breaks scattered here
and there throughout a couple of tracks, there is very little on this disc
that wasn’t covered by Bjork’s first two solo albums, “Debut” and “Post.”
In fact, there are times when the listener could easily trick themselves
into thinking that they are listening to one of those CDs. Yes, Emiliana’s
voice really sounds that much like Bjork’s. The fact that ex-Sugarcubes
(Bjork’s former band) member Siggi Baldursson had a hand in writing four
of the tracks fuels my suspicion that this album is little more than an
attempt to capitalize on Bjork’s success.
But hell, maybe I’m being a little unfair to Emiliana. After all, with the
right effects pumped into the mix, her voice is nothing short of beautiful.

Plus, while she didn’t write all the songs on her debut, she at least co-wrote
all of the album’s highlights. She has talent, and it is rather unfortunate
that every American review she receives will almost undoubtedly mention
Bjork’s name more often than hers (see this review for example.) However,
anyone who hears “Love In the Time of Science” will have to admit that she
pretty much set herself up for it.
The opening track, “To Be Free,” is one of the album’s high points. With
lazy start-stop beats and subdued jungle fills laid over synth strings,
this track has a very warm feel to it. The chorus tries to be a little too
funky to fit in with the rest of the song, but the overall effect still
works. “Baby Blue” features Portishead/Reprazent drummer Clive Deamer, but
he fails to bring in any of the headiness of his other bands into this project.
“Unemployed In Summertime” is fairly annoying, employing a double-dose of
Bjork’s (there it is again) cheekiness. “Dead Things” oozes with ambience,
reverb, and metallic percussion. Emiliana’s voice sounds best in this sonic
environment, making this the album’s standout track by far. The closer,
“Sea People,” is short and sweet, and ends the album effectively. However,
chances are that you won’t notice since you more than likely stopped paying
attention halfway through the disc.

***/5
- Walker Morgan