Category: reviews

audio review : Hold My Liquor ( song ) … Kanye West ( featuring Chief Keef + Justin Vernon )

“Calling-up your uncle’s place,” Justin Vernon sings, “Shit’s all over the place”. I guess that part, the song’s melodic highlight, is supposed to be the bridge, but it should be the chorus. The real chorus, sang by an Autotuned Chief Keef, is comparatively lame.

I’m glad he doesn’t rap, but there should be two verses. Kanye West’s one, which reveals a romantic theme undetectable in the “nigga”-ridden hook, makes for a song that’s structurally awkward. Not that the spacey instrumental isn’t a form of drunken tranquility.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013

audio review : Yeezus ( album ) … Kanye West

video review : Do The Right Thing

video review : Do The Right Thing

There are plenty of stupid things in this movie, beginning with the opening dance sequence, but the stupidest or at least most annoying are Smiley and Buggin Out. They’re characters who live in Brooklyn and are obsessively infatuated with the black race like seemingly every other black character in this movie. Smiley, who stutters whenever he speaks, is a retard. Buggin Out just acts like one. The problem with the two is that their annoying ways are played-out almost to the point of caricaturization. They come across as virtual cartoons in a movie that’s supposed to be about real life.

It’s a hot summer day and Mookie, who works as a delivery man for an Italian pizzeria, is just trying to get thru life. That’s the gist of a plot that cares more about observing characters in their everyday environment; the neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant; than telling a cohesive story. At one point, the story is temporarily abandoned for an impromptu insult session. That bit too is, of course, all about race. “Tawana (Brawley) told the truth,” reads a graffiti message in a another scene. All this racial tension peaks at the end when a guy named Radio Raheem becomes the victim of police brutality.

my rating : 3 of 5

1989

video review : Red Hook Summer

video review : Red Hook Summer

This is an epilogue to Do The Right Thing, a movie many people consider Spike Lee’s magnum opus, only in the sense that he uses it to reprise his role as Mookie. It’s a brief cameo feature but a touch of nostalgia nonetheless. Both movies focus on black people in the city of Brooklyn. I just happen to like this one a little more.

The acting on the part of the two child stars is surprisingly amateurish, especially the girl’s; her voice inflections are consistently wrong; but Red Hook Summer, as desultory as its plot may be, is never boring. That has mostly to do with the boy’s grandfather, a Bible-gripping bishop who preaches the gospel even when he’s not preaching.

He’s determined to introduce his grandson to “God”. And even if his cultic sermons fall on deaf ears, the church song performances he leads are enjoyable. The non-diegetic music, which plays even during scenes it shouldn’t play during; Spike Lee appears at the end wearing a “No Music” shirt, oddly enough; sounds good too.

Then there’s a major plot twist. It’s a sudden character reveal near the level of The Sixth Sense. The way it happens is, like the fire riot scene in Do The Right Thing, overdramatic and even a bit silly, but it sets the tone for an ending that, whether you can feel compassionate for the protagonist or not, is somber and moving.

my rating : 3 of 5

2012

audio review : Raven ( album ) … Paula Cole

audio review : Raven ( album ) ... Paula Cole

Paula Cole is best when she’s bawling like a lunatic. Those moments are typically the highlights of her albums and this one is no exception. Billy Joe and Imaginary Man are decent, but it’s the office sex fantasy where she plays a naughty Secretary that flies highest. The song’s climax is intensely gratifying… or at least gratifyingly intense.

What this album would do better without are the short four-bar choruses, which could ruin an otherwise enjoyable song. A chorus should almost always go by eights. Not that this songbird needs music lessons from me. She and her band are masters at making cozy mood music. It’s just that sometimes that mood is kind of boring.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013

audio review : Blood On The Dance Floor ( song ) … Michael Jackson

The main flaw of this song has less to do with music than promotion. Epic Records, Michael Jackson’s label ever since Off The Wall, is trying to push this as a new single despite the fact that it’s (apparently) at least six years old. Some of the vocals may be new, I don’t know, but the music; the drumbeat of which is a replica of Remember The Time; isn’t. That’s a major marketing glitch that could’ve easily been fixed by simply releasing the song as an outtake from the Dangerous album. It’s also a bad look for producer Teddy Riley, considering the fact that it’s only taken six years for his New Jack Swing to sound old.

Other flaws, like lack of bass on a song that should be pounding the club and subpar vocal melodies during the verses, are relatively minor. Aesthetically this is a good song. The protagonist, a knife-wielding killer named Susie, is bad, at least in a moral sense, but the chorus sounds catchy enough, especially during the final peak when Jackson starts hyping it with his signature ad-libs. The song goes from good to great for about twenty seconds. “It was blood on the dance floor,” Jackson sings with masterful inflections, “It was blood on the dance floor.” The last two times he says it are particularly striking.

my rating : 4 of 5

1997

audio review : Blood On The Dance Floor [ History In The Mix ] ( album ) … Michael Jackson

audio review : Love 2 Love ( song ) … Janet Jackson

Prince is the only song artist who can get away with replacing title words with the numbers they sound like because he’s Prince. For everyone else it comes across as silly and pretentious. Janet Jackson is no exception. Still there’s something clever going on here. “We are a couple,” she says. That’s “2”, so I guess it makes sense.

The Love part, at least the latter Love part, is a generic euphemism for lust; the sexual kind that has a girl touching, licking, kissing and stroking a guy’s dick in order to get it ready to enter her pussy. It’s the fact that he’s also her romantic partner, not just her romantic partner for the night, that makes it all right in her mind.

What makes it all right in my mind is the music; a sultry and metallic, somewhat futuristic groove carefully produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Those two deserve all the credit in the world for composing such a sexy soundtrack. It’s the way Janet Jackson harmonizes those “Ooooo”s though that’s most pleasing to the ears.

my rating : 4 of 5

2006

audio review : Love 2 Love ( song ) ... Janet Jackson

audio review : Somewhere In America ( song ) … Jay-Z

It’s not the horn loop but the pianos that make the beat special. They carry it along with the ghetto elegance of a Dr Dre production circa 2001. It’s actually produced by Hit-Boy and Mike Dean. The best part is when the drums drop out and are replaced by what sounds like stringed instruments of some kind.

That’s the part rapper Jay-Z, wise enough not to bog the vibe down with one of his lame hooks, has sex doll Miley Cyrus dancing to. “Twerk, Miley,” he commands with a giggle. It’s a random way to end this semi-song and the music seems a bit slow to do that particular dance to, but it’s a cute nod nonetheless.

my rating : 4 of 5

2013

audio review : Magna Carta Holy Grail ( album ) ... Jay-Z

audio review : Piece Maker 3 [ Return Of The 50 MCs ] ( album ) … Tony Touch

audio review : Piece Maker 3 [ Return Of The 50 MCs ] ( album ) ... Tony Touch

There should be exactly fifty MCs, or rappers, featured on this set; the third in a series of mixtape-style compilations from DJ Tony Touch; but there isn’t. My count, not including a spoken monologue by Angie Martinez, goes over fifty. That’s a major conceptual flaw as far as I’m concerned. If there are more than fifty MCs, in other words, what sense does it make to say “50” in the title? It’s a nice solid number, yes, but I see no logical reason to round down to it. The best thing would’ve been to simply limit the guest-list to 49.

That’s because Tony Touch starts the set with a verse of his own. He doesn’t have anything particularly clever or interesting to say; that’s actually the case for most rappers; but his drunken Puerto Rican flow makes it one of the best. Two of my favorite rappers; Eminem, who spit the best Piece Maker verse back in 2000, and Masta Ace; are also featured, but both disappoint. The best verse this time around comes from Papoose on Brooklyn with an honorable mention going to a surprisingly fresh KRS-One on The Bronx.

He rhymes “delay” more than once; he should’ve looked over his verse more carefully to make sure he wasn’t repeating words; but it’s still a relatively impressive verse. The Lox and members of the Wu-Tang clan also provide verses for the album. This is New York hip-hop music, so it’s no surprise that one of the best beats; the horn-laced banger on the aforementioned opener; is provided by DJ Premier. Another banger comes from Statik Selektah on A Queen’s Thing, a borough anthem by Action Bronson and Kool G Rap.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013

audio review : Magna Carta Holy Grail ( album ) … Jay-Z

audio review : Magna Carta Holy Grail ( album ) ... Jay-Z

The title implies historic importance, but this sounds like just another Jay-Z album to me. That means fans of the rapper, at least the ones who aren’t particularly critical when it comes to hooks, should enjoy it while the rest of us are limited to bobbing our heads to the beats. Picasso Baby, fathered by an Adrian Younge sample loop, captures the grittiness of 1970s funk, but the chorus, or lack of, ruins the song. That’s the problem with most of Jay-Z’s albums and this one is no exception. I’ve been saying he has minimal song talent for years. His albums continue to prove my point.

This Holy Grail is better than Yeezus though, for whatever that’s worth. Kanye West is a better music artist in general, but he lost his imaginary crown on that one. Jay-Z, on the other hand, is no less of a king, or a “God”, than he’s been since his ego got big enough to make him think he is one. Being consistently lackluster, after all, is still being consistent. Not that there aren’t any highlights here. Somewhere In America, which features a clever “Instagram” line and a cute nod to Miley Cyrus, sounds good. Nickels And Dimes is also likable. Too bad it totally rips off a Gonjasufi song.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013

video review : Hitchcock

video review : Hitchcock

The title suggests a full bio, but Hitchcock covers the life of the famous director only during the production of Psycho. It’s a movie about making a movie considered one of the best and most groundbreaking in cinema history.

Psycho went on to become Hitchcock’s most successful film. This behind-the-scenes retrospective, which spends too much time away from the on-set action to focus on his troubled marriage, is comparatively pointless.

my rating : 3 of 5

2012

video review : Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee [ Season 1 ]

video review : Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee [ Season 1 ]

“You don’t have to have coffee,” Jerry Seinfeld says to Michael Richards, “That’s just the name of the show.” That conceptual inaccuracy doesn’t seem to bother Jerry, but it bothers me. If the comedians aren’t necessarily getting coffee, why say it in the title?

It’s a minor gripe though. The main problem with the show is that it isn’t particularly funny. It’s interesting watching celebrities interact like normal people and the non-diegetic jazz music makes for a cozy atmosphere, but the laughs are rarely warranted.

my rating : 3 of 5

2012

video review : The Call

video review : The Call

The ending, as far as movie realism goes, borders absurd. What happens in the final couple of minutes before the credits start is especially uncalled-for, but those silly plot twists aren’t quite enough to ruin what came before them.

The Call, about a 911 operator helping police find a trunked kidnap victim, is, for the most part, a thrill. The suspense hardly lets up until about the final third when the call and the realism of the plot suddenly get disconnected.

my rating : 4 of 5

2013