Robert Christgau's Music Criticism Blog - Expert Witness - MSN Music

The Roots/Action Bronson

Improvements on Hip-Hop Materialism

By Xgau Dec 6, 2011 4:50AM

 

The Roots: Undun (Def Jam)
It speaks well for their strength of mind that Jimmy Fallon hasn't just been good for their economic viability‑-he's been good for their music. But superb though their 2008 and 2010 records were, and admirable though their equipoise has been, concept albums are such sinkholes that the partial success of this reverse-chronologica​l tale of a doomed small-time hood is more surprising than its partial failure. Maybe I could work out plausible meanings for every song like some exegete brushing the cobwebs off "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." But all song cycles have holes in them, and really, just exactly what level of sagacity do we expect from Black Thought‑-or Bob Dylan, for that matter? What I get from Black Thought, as usual, is flashes of insight and articulated feeling. The sharpest verse here is Dice Raw's on "One Time," which along with "The Otherside" is the closest the song cycle comes to a stand-alone song. So what I get from the album as a whole isn't a feel for the fictional Redford Stephens. It's the pop refrains, Euro orchestrations, and simplified drumming absorbed by a sound that shows no sign of standing pat. B PLUS

 

Action Bronson: Dr. Lecter (Fine Fabric Delegates)

So much more consumable than Jacob or Hublot, the food Bronson fixates on never gets fancier than heirloom tomatoes or seared Ahi tuna‑-no cross-hatched merganser breast with lychee infusion and truffle garnis for this fat guy. With crucial propulsion and more crucial fun from no-name Tommy Mas's unfashionably sampled, unfashionably funky beats, his gluttony humanizes hip-hop materialism at an economically accessible level. If only he didn't treat women as meat like thousands of hip-hop hungries before him, I might even play it for my favorite cook at dinnertime. Instead, the follow-up Well Done trades in his homie Tommy on the more renowned and predictable Statik Selektah as it seeks revenge for the bad romance the fat guy had coming. B PLUS

 

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62Comments
Cam Patterson
Dec 7, 2011 11:10PM
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Wow, Dobie Gray died. It's a bad week for under-appreciated African-American musicians. "Drift Away" was a tricky song-- there's a bootleg of the Stones turning it into shitlist. "The In Crowd" = heaven. Where I hope he rests. Dang.
Jon LaFollette
Dec 7, 2011 11:07PM
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I don't find unDun to be a bad record, just an unfinished one. Only nine "real" songs? That's it fellas? Such a let down after the wondrous melancholy of How I Got Over. I blame the "concept" of this concept record - perhaps they thought they would get the benefit of the doubt. And seeing as how it's sitting at an 88 at MetaCritic, it looks like their blueprint succeeded. 
Tom Walker
Dec 7, 2011 7:29PM
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Michelangelo Matos has tracked down 112 of the 127 runner-up entries from Best Music Writing 2011.  In case you wanted more music writing.

http://goo.gl/KRE87
Greg Morton (GMort)
Dec 7, 2011 5:06PM
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In the ?uestlove interview by Alan Light that Bob mentions below, he hits a dead end when asked to explain the inspiration for the album.

What inspired the darkness of the album? This is a pretty morbid topic.

We're from Philadelphia, and just because we personally escaped a particular fate ... Well, for starters, it doesn't mean that we're immune to it. Even in our daily route, we're still in the heart of Philadelphia, which is one of the most violent cities in America. Just two weeks ago, my trainer just got robbed at gunpoint. It's just a very common thing. If you're walking around, you are vulnerable and you are susceptible to any sort of violent action, be it a Grammy Award-winning hero of the city or an unemployed have-not of the city. It's just ... I don't know.

The combination of "It's just a very common thing" with the resignation in his "It's just . . . I don't know", is very frightening. Bless their hearts and minds for this attempt at addressing the personal consequences of gang behavior, but it needs to be multiplied multiple times over. When is a musician with both artistic and cultural cred going to point out that this isn't just a collection of individual tragedies, but in fact a self reinforcing cycle of social behavior in which the very participants are the true victims? And then give advice on and be a role model for how to break out of it? Or has somebody already done it and I slept through it?
Alex Wilson (Japadsfdf)
Dec 7, 2011 3:24PM
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'Xgau, where does this leave you with Girl Talk and [DJ] Shadow?'
I think most of their songs are good, individually; I would say Girl Talk more than Shadow, as Shadow uses intermissions (which, while stylistically good [IMO], I tend to skip over, as songs).
Dave C90
Dec 7, 2011 3:07PM
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I'm a post behind and just getting to Pietra Montecorvino, whose Xgau-nominated record sounds strong to these ears. Did some youtubing in the hope of learning more and turned up some real schlocky stuff. I wonder if our European correspondents (or anyone else here) can enlighten further on her credentials/rep. Are there other gems in the discography?
Robert Christgau (Xgau)
Dec 7, 2011 11:20AM
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In re the Roots, be aware that Alan Light's interview and my review of their show last week are both on the music homepage.


scott coleman
Dec 7, 2011 10:34AM
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Pitchfork has a good article by Simon Reynolds looking back on 2011 in electronic music. goo.gl/qjUI7

 

 

Ioannis Sotirchos
Dec 7, 2011 10:15AM
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Launch Best Music Writing as an independently published book series:

http://goo.gl/i7BgX

music writing fans unite!

jeff melnick (jmel64)
Dec 7, 2011 9:56AM
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Oh lord! My bad if the MF recommendation came off condescending.  It was meant to be gushing enthusiasm for Marianne Faithfull (cos' I'm just kind of a  fool for her--especially after reading the autobiographies) and maybe a little bit of a dig on Patti Smith, whose book I thought was kind of absurdly overpraised.  And I've definitely noticed (and been making lists!) of all the books mentioned here in the past months....
Allen B.
Dec 7, 2011 9:32AM
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Jeff, I'm a Just Kids fan who read Faithfull, and on this board I'm quite sure I'm not the only one - this is a music book readin' group.   I doubt it was your intent, but the tone comes off a little condescending.
Ioannis Sotirchos
Dec 7, 2011 5:55AM
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And for the record, whenever songs are designed to "work with" other songs, their individual impact stands a real risk of being compromised. That's axiomatic.
Xgau: where does this leave you with Girl Talk and Shadow?

speaking solely for myself (obviously), i'd say just substitute "compositions"--of a sort--for songs, and there you are. of course, Shadow et al more or less work in suite-like forms--Brian Wilson, anyone?--rather than the sorta discreet, individual tracks you get from the likes of The Roots and/or Townshend, in which case the whole is generally of greater interest/aesthetic effect than the sum of its constituent parts might lead you to believe at first glance/hearing(?) (and where have i heard that one before?).  


main problem with Undun, far as i'm concerned, is that, with certain tracks, the specific musical material does not quite match up--hook-wise, pleasure-wise, omg-did-you-hear-tha​t? sonics-wise--to its attendant conceptual/verbal insight (at least insofar as any potentiality goes).


[does that even make any sense at all?] [i'm hungry.]

Robert Christgau (Xgau)
Dec 7, 2011 5:28AM
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Those commenting on the grain of Montecorvino's voice agree with Carola, who told me I should have been more explicit than "grit" about her delivery. But it was tough to fold in what I did, and I don't normally consider myself obliged to cram everything good about a record into a capsule review. FWIW, I think she's a better singer with a better voice than Faithfull, who has the advantage of singing well-written songs whose lyrics I can understand.


Robert Christgau (Xgau)
Dec 7, 2011 5:22AM
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Nicky: Obviously one of the great things about sampled music in general is its ability to recontextualize parts of songs that we'll call hooks even though often we didn't know the hooks were there. Duh. But I'd say there are big differences between Shadow and Girl Talk. Shadow's two great albums are in fact successful song cycles, though it probably helps that they're not trying to achieve any verbal content. Girl Talk's good albums work the way many good albums do--as collections of songs that seem to add up to wholesgreaterthanthe​sumoftheirparts. "Seem" is key in that formulation. Someone more musically literate than I am might be able to point out harmonic or rhythmic unifying elements, although he or she might be jiving. But for blokes like me it does present itself as more a matter of very subjective "feel."
jeff melnick (jmel64)
Dec 7, 2011 4:44AM
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Interested to see Cam's Marianne Faithfull mention below.  Faithfull was very much my reference point for the wonderful Montecorvino record on my first listen.  In fact it made me imagine a joint review of it with Marianne Faithfull's 2011 Horses and High Heels--which I hear as only a slight fall off from Easy Come Easy Go.   I mean I don't really need to hear the Shangri-Las "Past, Present, Future" outside of the movie Stonewall, but Horses...has a few amazing covers (including a heartrending Goin' Back) and some surprisingly good originals.  And I've said this here before, but all you Just Kids fans should really do yourself a favor and read Faithfull.

Could've followed up the Waits/Pusha T with Montecorvino and Faithfull and called it "Well, They Both Kind of Rasp."
Richard Cobeen
Dec 7, 2011 1:42AM
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FYI, the Willis/Nelson article is being featured on Salon right now. I hope Xgau got a little more scratch because of this.
Fabien Boss
Dec 6, 2011 11:44PM
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I didn't say the album lacked good lines. I said it lacked good songs.

I still haven't heard the Roots album more than twice but this line reminds me: "Quadrophenia", bim !

Ñīçkÿ
Dec 6, 2011 11:03PM
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And for the record, whenever songs are designed to "work with" other songs, their individual impact stands a real risk of being compromised. That's axiomatic. 
Xgau: where does this leave you with Girl Talk and Shadow? 
bradluen
Dec 6, 2011 10:26PM
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I didn't say the album lacked good lines. I said it lacked good songs.
Didn't mean to imply otherwise. Don't know what I think about the songs or the whole yet - only listened to it once, mostly for narrative.
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about the blogger

Robert Christgau

Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.

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