Wednesday, November 9, 2016

album review: 'black america again' by common

It's easy for people like me to speak messages of encouragement and hope, given what has just happened in the United States. Hell, I'm in Canada, I'm further insulated from all of it. And what can I do with my platform and audience - who is primarily in the United States - that will make a difference, especially considering what is to come? Odds are over twenty million of people are going to lose their health insurance overnight, and providing Obama doesn't pull a fast one and somehow fill that Supreme Court vacancy, abortion and gay marriage rights will probably be going away too - look at that VP and tell me otherwise. The balance has once again shifted back to protect those who discriminate rather than those who are discriminated, punching down instead of punching up, and while I could blame the Democrats for a sloppily run campaign and third parties for asinine voter deflection and the FBI for violating the Hatch Act in the eleventh hour and Republicans for disseminating blatant lies and active voter suppression and the media for feeding into all of it, normalizing lunacy and abandoning any civic responsibility to the public... at the end of the day, America, particularly white America, brought this on herself. They bought into a con, and if there's any proof that 'greatest country in the world' label has been sorely tested indeed and will face even greater challenges in the years ahead, it's here. And given that the president-elect's policy challenges include revising trade deals that affect my home country and non-existent or outright fraudulent environmental policies that impact the planet, you can bet I'm can feel the urge to say or do something, in even the smallest way.

So of course I'm reviewing Common, what else could I do? Common, the conscious rapper who may not always have the most consistent discography but in modern years has seen a creative reawakening in some of the most political material he's ever created. His 2014 album Nobody's Smiling, while not at the level of his best material, was easily the best record he had made in a decade, and in this polarized, burned out shell of a year in 2016, you can bet I was looking to Black America Again to connect, to say something. It dropped before the election, so it was inevitable it wouldn't have the titanic revolutionary fury an album like Run The Jewels 3 was bound to have, but it would have to have something, right?

Well, here's the thing, folks: this was a record that was released days before the election - and that's the inherent danger of political albums, they're often tied directly to the moment and events on which they speak. The best can transcend that, tap into something deeper and universal... and while Black America Again tries to get there, in the immediate aftermath of last night this record feels a lot more like an image and mood of what might have been, that we might not see in the United States for so much longer. And I'm not sure if I can even blame Common for that - nobody saw this coming. But again, that's a broader context outside of the record itself, and while said context is important and will inevitably color how it will be perceived for months if not years going forward, how's the album itself? Honestly, I wish I liked it more - just like Nobody's Smiling, it's often better in pieces than as a whole... I just wish those pieces came together.

And here's the thing: I can see what Common was looking to do when he was putting this project together, from the instrumentation to his delivery to all of the content. He was looking to create the mature and modern black man's album, not just confined to Chicago but looking out across the entire world. 'Home' showcases a message outwards to spread hope and wisdom across the world, both to transcend the world's flaws while living within to make things better. And the controlled, conscious invective in favour of Black Lives Matter and against private prisons, racist cops, voter suppression, media stereotyping, yo name it that shows up on the title track complete with samples from James Brown and an outro from Stevie Wonder, especially 'A Bigger Picture Called Free' where his second verse takes him to the perspective of a man serving his time, and the closer 'Letter To The Free'. And that maturity goes even further to songs like 'Pyramids' where his flow is as strong than it has ever been - regardless of his content, Common sounds great on these tracks, a voice of educated, informed, and thorough optimism. Hell, it's probably why throughout the midsection of this record he throws in straightforward love songs like 'Love Star', 'Red Wine', and 'Unfamiliar', and they turn out pretty damn good too... they don't really do a lot for the cohesion of the project overall, but they have the poise and respect to be tasteful and charming. Probably the best example of this is 'Rain' with John Legend handling the majority of the song - in the face of any adversity, they'll face the rain and let it wash off of them, and it's a potent track.

Unfortunately, while the message rings clear, the fact that on 'Letter To The Free' Common chose to directly reference the election makes the defeat yesterday throw this record in an unfortunate context that you can't really get around. The maturity and optimism rings clear but feels a bit disconnected when you throw in the mature love songs that are all too tasteful, or when you consider the utopian picture of 'The Day Women Took Over', which seems like a feminist dream where there truly is equity among the genders and chivalry can be respected again and today it rings as all the more of a idealistic pipe dream. But moving beyond the context of the past twenty-four hours, it does highlight some frustrating holes in Common's political message. Like it or not, that song frames the feminine ideal above men, not equal, which can definitely undercut his message, especially when he's framing and projecting onto women the air of untouchable perfect 'goddesses' - and that's a consistent ideal, not helped on 'Lovestar' where he says 'God's most beautiful creation, let me mold you'. And that brings up the framing of the record as a whole, and how much of it is coaxed through religious iconography - again, while I appreciate the sincerity, it's framing that can feel disconnected from the greater reality of the situation, a stylized ideal that's definitely appealing in spots, but it doesn't click on a visceral level. Coupled with the fact that this album crams its political messages into single songs instead of spreading them on an already overlong record, it feels misshapen in a way that doesn't do credit to how good of a rapper Common is or strong guest performances from John Legend, BJ The Chicago Kid, Marsha Ambrosius, PJ, Syd, and especially Bilal. Hell, Common even mentions his disconnection from his rougher roots a few times across this album with a bit of self-awareness, but you don't bridge that gap by going broader - you cut to the ground, and it's one of the reasons the tribute to his late father 'Little Chicago Boy' actually picks up some pathos.

Of course, all of this snaps back to the production... which I wish I liked more, to be honest. There's a significant amount of whiplash across styles, from adult contemporary soul and R&B to more rough-edged gospel or hip-hop cuts, and while I appreciate that so much of it is designed to feel off-kilter, choppy and unsteady, it doesn't always coalesce as well I was hoping. Take the opener 'Joy And Piece' was that thin film of discordant synth and organ against the dirtier beat against a jazz-inspired jittery guitar - pair it with lyrics and tones looking for gospel swell, and it doesn't really work. The anger clicks into place much more strongly on the title track, with the low pianos that break into sandy and flattened drums with hints of strings swell that eventually breaks apart for Stevie's outro - an overloaded song, sure, but it does have intensity that deserved not to get completely neutered by the deep sandy pop of the beat of 'Love Star' with R&B coos, twinkling synths, horns, and some of Common's corniest bars on the album! It'd be done a lot better on the closing track 'Letter To The Free', which not just feels more focused in its piano melody, its rattling march beat, and richer blues chorus - but those woodwinds feel like a weird choice for the vibe, which is the same case for 'Little Chicago Boy' which has a solid deeper beat and guitar melody, but those dinky hollow synths don't flatter the gospel vibe at all on the back half - a damn shame, because Tasha Cobbs sounds great here. And that's before we get to the production inconsistencies - 'Pyramids' has some great bars against the live drums, but that synth tone sounds imported from a Sierra adventure game in the mid-90s. Similar case on 'A Bigger Picture Called Free', with the cymbal-touched pop against the inert melody and that unstable wobble of bass - great bars, but the hook and blend just feel clumsy as hell. Say what you will about 'Rain' for catering to a more 'conventional' neo-soul sound with the pianos and strings, but the sounds works for both John Legend's excellent delivery and Common's bars.

The rest of this... look, I can't say if I'm going to like or dislike this more with time and more distance from the events of last night, but let me stress that Black America Again has problems even removed from that. It's misshapen, overloaded and the production of good intentions and ideas against questionable execution. Common might be one of the most seasoned conscious wordsmiths in hip-hop and this really is the logical record for him to make in 2016, but between hit-and-miss production, haphazard song-sequencing, and the fact that Common really didn't hit that deeper mark for me outside of a few songs... I'm feeling a very strong 6/10 and a recommendation if you're a fan. If I had covered this record on Monday instead of now... well, I'm not sure if it would have connected more deeply. If we're going to talk about art and culture, it only makes sense to place that record into that cultural context right now. Some of what Common aspires to, though... let's hope America can relearn to dream.

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