Category: reviews

audio review : The Foundation ( album ) … Geto Boys

audio review : The Foundation ( album ) ... Geto Boys

These days, a new Geto Boys album from Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill is more of a rarity than you might think. It never happens without Scarface, the apparent leader, but the three members don’t always get along, so every other album since the group said they Can’t Be Stopped in 1991 had outsiders taking the place of either Willie D or Bushwick Bill. That makes this Foundation their first new album in almost a decade.

Not a lot has changed since then. “It’s the return of the murderer, maniac, madman,” Scarface announces, in one of the grimiest voices in the world of popular rap, while Willie D grabs a knife to “stab your ass in the leg and the chest and the back and mouth”, respectively. Yep, they’re still violent, and still crazy, after all these years. Bushwick Bill exposes his dick in a club full of strangers and idolizes a plastic horror movie doll… still.

As fascinating as their psychopathic antics can be, they might be at their collective best when revealing their softer sides. I Tried, possibly their best song, takes us on an introspective trip down the bumps in the road of Memory Lane, where even Bushwick seems to care as he overcomes thoughts of suicide for the sake of his babies. The music is jazzy, soulful and delicate; a peaceful rarity on an album otherwise ready for war.

War And Peace was supposed to be the title, as J Prince suggests on the prelude, before they changed it for whatever reason. Names aside, it’s an album that could’ve been better if it had a better ending. Leaving listeners with a random Bushwick Bill song about the Dirty Bitch he holds a heart full of hatred for was an awful artistic decision. Even given the lazy “Outro” that follows, the album seems awkward and incomplete because of it.

my rating : 3 of 5

2005

the Reflections Elegant Black-And-White Mirror from Kate Aspen

the Reflections Elegant Black-And-White Mirror from Kate Aspen

This Reflections mirror is designed and marketed as a gift for weddings and the like. It comes in a bowed organza bag with a For You message attached. The casing folds out to reveal that there’s actually a bottom mirror and a (smaller) top one.

There’s also a third reflector on the casing’s shiny silver bottom, but that one is incidental. The casing’s black top is decorated with a damask pattern, which is too fancy for my liking; I’d much prefer plain black; but it’s a functional design overall.

my rating : 3 of 5

audio review : Compton ( album ) … Dr Dre

audio review : Compton ( album ) ... Dr Dre

Detox seemed like a sure thing near the end of 2010 when, after producing every song on Relapse; one of Eminem’s best two albums; Dr Dre released what was supposed to be its first single; a glossy party banger entitled Kush, featuring Snoop Dogg. It was a good start. But instead of finally putting the album out, he followed with one of his worst, albeit one of his most popular, songs; I Need A Doctor; and fell back into relative obscurity. It was an odd move rarely heard of in the world of popular music. Albums are pushed back, but almost never canceled after their first singles are released. The world was used to waiting though, for an album rumored and teased so ridiculously long that it was becoming a rap legend. Will fans ever get that Chronic epilogue? Dr Dre suggested not as he spoke about it in the past tense during a recent radio interview. “I didn’t like it,” he said, “It wasn’t good.”

That suggests he likes this album and thinks it’s good. It’s what Detox was originally supposed to be; a Dr Dre album with all-new songs. It sounds like all-new songs, but it doesn’t sound like a Dr Dre album, which, considering the sonic differences between the two Chronics, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What’s disappointing are the songs themselves. If we’re comparing them to what came several years before, they simply can’t compare. There’s no fun here. Humor is pushed aside for solemn thug poetry. The club is passed by for a Compton street corner, but where are the drugs and the hoes? Worst of all is the lack of catchy hooks to sing along with. Where’s Devin? Who are all these dudes? Where’s DJ Yella? “Where Ren at?” Kendrick Lamar is overrated. This sounds like one of his albums. Eminem was the best rapper by far in 2001. Why can’t he go back to rapping like that in every verse?

This isn’t Detox; I have to keep telling myself that; but it doesn’t have to be. It just has to be good. Dr Dre apparently thinks it is. I disagree. There’s nothing for me to latch onto here. The first song sounds surprisingly like the typical trap music of today. Dre didn’t used to follow. He used to innovate. Not that he made most of these beats (himself) anyway. The man is 50 years old. Perhaps I should give him a break, but why? He’s still making songs, so I can still critique them. “I ain’t heard nothing that I can consider classic,” he says of other rappers’ songs, but, even with a team of ghostwriters and ghostproducers on hand, I’m having a hard time hearing anything I can even consider good here. Even the beats, the best parts of the album, leave a lot to be desired. I’m not from Compton, so you might say it just isn’t meant for me, but I like both Chronic albums and never smoked weed. Go figure.

my rating : 3 of 5

2015
 

MCA :

Preach on, this album was so disappointing. I’m upset because we all deserve better.

R. J. Werner :

Amen!

DST :

I’m glad someone said it. After checking out the movie “Straight Outta Of Compton” and listening to the old albums, we were hype to listened to new music from Dre after all these years. The first time my friends & I heard “Compton”, we thought Dre broke into Kanye West’s studio and stole his instrumental tracks. Man what a huge let down. I hope someone will find those “Detox” tracks & released a bootleg version of it so we can judge if Detox was bad or was Dre just being his worst critic.

audio review : Regulate : G Funk Era [ Part 2 ] ( EP ) … Warren G

audio review : Regulate : G Funk Era [ Part 2 ] ( EP ) ... Warren G

This release, presented as the sequel to Warren G’s Regulate album, reeks of desperation. Fans who haven’t checked for him in years, decades even, will be inclined to give it a listen for the name alone. He’s apparently banking on that.

Part 1 is regarded by many as the best rap album of 1994, but that album, while short, is a normal one that features Nate Dogg only on its title song. Following it via an EP with prehumous Nate Dogg vocals on every song makes no artistic sense.

It’s a hasty attention grab made worse by the fact that My House, in which G mimics R Kelly’s Woman’s Threat, is annoying during the breaks and the final song, about murderous set-up hoes, is conceptually an inappropriate way to end the set.

my rating : 2 of 5

2015

audio review : Blood ( album ) … Lianne La Havas

audio review : Blood ( album ) ... Lianne La Havas

If the title is meant to hint at something bad, fans need not fear. It’s only the sophomore jinx Lianne La Havas has been stricken with. Not that her first album is good. That one does, however, have three or four stand-out songs sprinkled in among the snoozers. This new Blood set has a harder time pumping them out.

The soundscape is, again, vintage in nature. Havas makes deep soul music that could’ve just as well come from long before she was born. It’s her vocal melodies, essentially the songs themselves, that disappoint. Midnight and Tokyo are mild highlights, but What You Don’t Do is dumb and most of the others are bland.

my rating : 3 of 5

2015

video review : Black Swan

video review : Black Swan

I don’t get the aesthetic allure of ballet. What I appreciate on a sexual level is watching dainty girls parade around in tights. If Black Swan is a realistic representative of the ballet world, I’m not alone in my perversion. Lewd sex is a major theme here. It’s a driving force for nearly every major character. Even the relationship between mother and daughter had me anticipating a sex scene between the two.

The problem is that the story is too ambiguous. The diegetic reason for that is because Nina, the dancer it revolves around, tends to hallucinate. She apparently has a major mental disorder, perhaps brought on by said Mommy, whom she still lives with and clings to at the age of twenty-something. Black Swan, a movie that wasn’t really engaging in the first place, soon loses its way in a barrage of horror-flick clichés.

my rating : 2 of 5

2010

video review : Paranormal Activity : The Marked Ones

video review : Paranormal Activity : The Marked Ones

This is Paranormal Activity 5. The decision to omit the “5” and give it a subtitle was a stupid one that not only causes confusion but basically ruins the consistency of the series. Not that it wasn’t already stupid. Paranormal Activity should’ve ended after the first one. Making more has less to do with art than money and it shows. This is, in a lot of ways, the same story being told over and over again. It’s a decent story usually; 2 is notably worse than the rest; but essentially the same nonetheless.

This time the camera focuses on a recent high school graduate named Jesse. His best friend Hector is the one with the camera and he seems to have it on constantly, as if he knows he’s shooting a real movie. They also have a friend named Marisol. The three serve as amatuer investigators when spooky things start happening around Jesse’s apartment. It begins with the death of the weirdo downstairs neighbor. By the end, people are screaming and running for their lives as the camera shoots on.

my rating : 3 of 5

2014

video review : Paranormal Activity : The Ghost Dimension
video review : Paranormal Activity : Next Of Kin

video review : Horrible Bosses 2

video review : Horrible Bosses 2

This movie isn’t horrible. It’s as okay as the first one. The title makes less sense now as it refers not to the people the main characters work for but the guys themselves. Nick, Kurt and Dale have become potential entrepreneurs by quitting their jobs and inventing a bath product called The Shower Buddy.

The opening scene has them on the set of a morning TV show to promote it. What happens from there takes the plot into an assortment of wacky twists and turns, all for the sake of comedy. Is it funny? Sometimes. But not nearly as often as it tries to be. Is it stupid? Usually. But so was the original.

my rating : 3 of 5

2014

video review : All Is Lost

video review : All Is Lost

The obvious comparison here is to Cast Away. They’re both stories about a man stranded on what may as well be the center of an ocean. What’s better here is the beginning and ending. This movie ends like that one should’ve. There’s no epilogue or even scene change to distract from the gist. Robert Redford is the sole character and his struggle to survive is all it’s about.

my rating : 4 of 5

Full Circle Organic Applesauce [ Unsweetened ]

Full Circle Organic Applesauce [ Unsweetened ]

My big problem with eating healthy is that healthy food generally doesn’t taste good. Sweet fruits, like apples, are a rare exception. Even with an apple though, there’s the nuisance of having to find a ripe one, peel it, and so on. That’s where jarred sauce comes in.

This Full Circle applesauce is made with organic apples, basically regular ones minus the harmful pesticides, and nothing else; not even water, so the texture isn’t too liquidy. As far as healthy eating goes, it’s a suitable alternative to almost any other sweet dessert.

my rating : 4 of 5

video review : Gone Girl

video review : Gone Girl

Girl Gone would’ve been a better title, but that fault goes to the Gillian Flynn book this movie is based on. It’s a novel not based on a true story because true stories aren’t (usually) this melodramatic. It starts off decently; a man’s wife goes missing and he’s suspected of murdering her; but the plot loses its way to what, in a crime flick that’s supposed to be realistic, equates to utter absurdity during the final third.

my rating : 2 of 5

2014

video review : Big Eyes

video review : Big Eyes

Margaret Keane is supposed to be a victim. Her husband defrauded the public by taking credit for her art and selling it as his, but it’s hard to feel sorry for her because she went along with it for financial gain albeit in 1950s America, where women artists weren’t taken seriously.

Sexual equality is a major theme in this slightly campy biography, which, with its simple storyline, serves as one of Tim Burton’s more cohesive, thus enjoyable, movies. It’s called Big Eyes, by the way, because of the peculiar way Keane’s art depicts the faces of its kid subjects.

my rating : 3 of 5

2014