Common Album: “The Electric Circus [PA]”

These days, it's pretty difficult for me to utter the word "perfection" in the music world. Aside from albums such as OutKast's "Aquemini", no album has ever really struck me as "perfect" - until now. Common has always been my favorite emcee, but I never expected this - never in a million years. Common has shown a type of growth and maturation the likes of which few have ever seen. His newfound maturity is easily seen on the lead single "Come Close" featuring none other than the infamous Mary J. Blige. When Common exclaims "The pimp in me/ it may have to die with you..." you get the feeling that he's serious this time. That's simply a taste of what on the album. I simply can't put into words the complexity of this album - every single track is a journey in itself. From "Electric Wire Hustler Flower" to "Star *69 (PS With Love)" to the stellar "Heaven Somewhere", you'll find that no part of this album is wasted on cliches and the usual barrage of mindless talk. Common, the hip-hop community thanks you for this album... Take a bow.

If you are a Common Sense fan, this album will satisfy you. If you enjoyed Com's approach on his previous album "Like Water For Chocolate", then you will love "Electric Circus". This album is really more of a fusion album than anything else, but this album's overall focus is centered around the advancement of Hip-hop music and culture all together. He definitely eludes towards progression on this album and indicates that he has matured ultimately and has grown into a musician. Artistically the album is strong and provides the listener with continuity in production, due to the Soulaquarians. But don't get it twisted, Comm hasn't forgotten where he came from, he's still a Chi-Town b-boy. Especially on songs like "Soul Power" produced by the slept on Jay DEE (J-Dilla), Comm just goes straight for the throat. On "I Am Music" featuring Jill Scott, Common and Jill make harmony over an up tempo jazzy groove as they speak to the listener and portray themselves as music from a first person perspective. On "Aquarius" Common proves they he can still serve the listener with a multitude of puchlines and wordplay. On "New Wave" The production is extremely brilliant with a futuristic feel to it.Ultimately you can't hate Common for what he is trying to do here. The album's only low points are evident on "Electric Wire Hustle Flower" feat Sunny from POD which is a sour sounding attempt to fuse industrial heavy metal with hip-hop. "I Got a Right To" featuring Pharell from the Neptunes isn't really a great one either, as much as you try to force yourself to like it I guarantee that most folks will skip it. Finally, on the monotonous 12 minute long track "Heaven Somewhere" Common is rarely anywhere to be found, and all of the songstresses on the album sing for 12 minutes along with "Pop's Rap" but come off sounding like a bunch of hound dogs howling. Ultimately, If you liked Common back in his b-boy days when he hit us with classics like Can I Borrow a Dollar, Resurrection, and One Day It Will All Make Sense, you might be dissapointed, that particular sound within Common has faded away. This album will disappoint a lot of long time heads. I kind of wish he would collaborate with producers NO I.D. and Doug Inf. again. But you really can't be mad at Comm for trying to uplift the current stagnant state of Rap. Go Cop It!

I have never heard an album like this in my entire life. And I've listened to some strange stuff. Seriously, as a fan of free jazz, I can put up with a lot, musically. But Common's "Electric Circus" album is just about as odd as anything I've ever heard.

Does that mean it's bad? Not really. Common's obviously pushing himself into unfamiliar territory with this album... exploring, pushing the boundaries of hiphop. It leads to some inspired moments: the dixieland soul-funk of "I Am Music (feat. Jill Scott)" makes it one of the best songs I've ever heard in the hiphop genre, period. The creative array of cross-rhythms and wah-wah mutes on that track are breathtaking.

"Electric Wire Hustler Flower" is an interesting distortion-fueled mind trip and a few other tracks even pick up the synth-inspired 80s new wave dance feel to run with.

Other tracks are not as successful. Common is usually not afraid of stripping his sound down. In this experiment, he beefs it up, swirls it around and often covers the best parts of it up in layers of experimentation.

The cover of the album itself has photos of different people involved in the project or who influenced the project. The multitude of heads on the album cover sort of sum up my feeling about this album itself: looking at that set of pictures, you can see a lot of small little spots genius -- you can spot faces you recognize, people you admire, etc, but if you back away and look at the cover from a distance, it's a visually confusing mess.

This album is sort of similar: often, there are spots you can pick out to admire, but sometimes it just seems to have been assembled confusingly. Largely produced by ?uestlove, of the Roots, this album is far more interesting album than "Be", and even possibly moreso than "Like Water for Chocolate"... but it's not always quite as successful.

But hey, I still bought it.

I have every single Common Album there is and all I can say is that I am very dissapointed. The title Electric Circus already had turned me off a little as well as all the [bad] guest spots. But like a real Common fan would, I still bought the album figuring it would surprise me. It surprised me alright! I was appalled. He is trying to mix different styles of music and thus be progressive in the hip hop world. Sorry! Didn't pull it off Common! The album didn't flow, the lyrics are sub par for Com, and some songs are just downright annoying. I couldn't even bare to listen to some of them. With that said, I admire expanding your horizons, but just make sure it is still good music. Make it jazzy with some hints of rock, not just NOISE! This album was promoted with the Roots Phrenolgy which also was a huge let down, though not as much as this. Talib's Quality didn't live up to Reflections Eternal, but at least it was still good music. Come On Common Neptunes ..., Eryka Badu clouds a rappers vision, and Prince is a has been. ... 2 stars for effort/idea. Peace

This album is highly underrated, i think common is s a musical genius and all hgis cds are great. this one stands out mostly because it is so creative. i am a huge underground hip-hop fan and i love this album. He experiments with things that i have never heard, especially in a rap album where everything now days is starting tos ound like the same garbage. Rap needs more people like common. Some of the best songs on the cd include Come Close w/ Mary J. Blige, I got a right ta w/ Pharrell, and my personal favorite I Am Music w/ Jill Scott & Star *69 w/ the legendary genius Prince on keyboards & Guitar.