Customer Reviews

Electric Circus

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Electric Circus from Common is one of the must eccentric Hip Hop CD's that I have ever heard. As I was skimming through it my first impressing was "What in the world is this?" It was like Hip Hop was on an acid trip. Most of the beats had elements from the "seventies funk era." However I gave the CD another hear around, and listened to the lyrics and concept of the disc. Lyrically Common is very profound with expressing his stories, of Human Issues (Between Me, You & Liberation) & Love (Come Close). Out of 13 songs I enjoyed 8 (which is normal for me from a Common CD). The other 5 songs were okay, but either the production or lyrics got shuffled in the "Matrix", and lost my personal interest. I truly enjoyed this "collaged" of his interpretation of An "Electric Circus". It was something different and unique.

Lyrically Common is one of the "Ringleaders" in this Hip Hop madness. If you enjoy a "Mc Clown" who likes to brag about the people they killed, people they are sleeping with, and items they own then this CD is not for you. Only listeners with ability to enjoy "True Hip Hop" and doesn't settle for the regular "mode" of music could truly enjoy the message that the "Electric Circus" delivers.

My picks from this CD.
Song that will get you hyped and Jumping
Soul Power
Electric Wire Hustler
New Wave

Songs that will make your head swing (Mellow Madness)
Come Close (My Favorite)
I Am Music (Love The Beat and Jill Scott a is plus)
Aquarius (Hot)

Songs with a very deep message
Heaven (Long but food for thought)
Between Me, You & Liberation (Very Deep)

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.

I gave this CD five stars simply because Common stepped out of his comfort zone and made an album that HE wanted to make. Musically, it is very experimental, fusing hip-hop with jazz, rock, ragtime, new wave and R&B. Lyrically, perhaps his most daring work, with the centerpiece being "Between You, Me & Liberation" on which he tackles molestation, cancer and homophobia in three well-written verses (feauting the incredible Ceee-lo Green as well on vocals). "Come Close" with Mary J. Blige reveals a more sensitive side of Common...apparently startling to some, but it's a nice offset for the avant-garde atmosphere of the rest of the CD. Prince appears on "Star 69" and Erykah Badu on the journey of "Jimi Was a Rock Star". Not for the narrow-minded, but for true art lovers, you will love this piece of work.

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 love this album.

I'm a house head and a huge music fan of every genre I've heard so far except Lynyrd Skynyrd's take on Southern rock, most C&W and commercial hip hop. I think it's because I'm getting old, I'm Black and I'm (technically) bourgie. Anyway, I heard this album in someone's car, a younger someone who bought the album out of dedication to Common, but was seriously annoyed with this work. Out of 4 people in the car, I was the only one who was "ooohing and aaahing" because of the introduction and, thus, got the point of the album.

Hello. I'm a priest of Ocha and I love love LOVE that song for Ogun.

Ogun is the waymaker, the one who opens the path for (R)evolution, Development, New Things. I don't know much about hip hop beyond De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Doug E. Fresh, but this album made perfect sense to me. Musicians can and should do more than what their so-called genre says they should do. The world is too big for that. Shoot, Bed-Stuy is too big for that. Let's reclaim Jimi and Miss Ella from the suburbs and remake our selves in our own images (and I do mean that in the plural).

This is a great album.

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.

"Ohhhhhhh noooooo Common has fallen way off, wick, wick, wack!" are the cries heard from those that have picked up the latest release from Common. I say this simply isn't the case, if you are not only a hip hop head like I am and have your ears tuned into many forms of music to listen for truly great artists, you will find the real beauty in this record. If you have been a real fan of Common Sense you will understand where this joint is coming from. If you truly have felt and taken each piece of Common's art work and not just picked it up and listened to it. With each successive album Common broadens his style and expands and builds upon the template that makes Lonnie Rashied Lynn the hip-hop hero, Common Sense. With his debut "Can I Borrow A Dollar?" he came on the seen with jazzy production show casing a the talents of a fluid MC who wasn't about being a gangsta, next up we have "Resurrection" Common developing the sense side of his name more where broadened his topical range while still maintaining a strong b-boy stance, then came "One Day It'll All Make Sense" which Common added social themes, as well as making this album more soulful than jazzy and adding a larger sense of spirituality, then came "Like Water For Chocolate" Common still had a strong B-Boy stance with this album as well as his social, and spiritual attitude, still had use of jazz & soul but there was also predominant use of funk on this album and more introspective & personal sense in the topical matter on the mic. After all that each album must be looked at alone and not compared to each other for that would take away the value of each individual records purpose to show us a man as a hip hop artists growth. That is why I think along with all his other albums this one is a fantastic addition to Common's cannon of work. When I first put this cd in my discman I was admittedly a little shocked, this wasn't really as laid back as most of his other albums had maintained but I told my self I would listen to it song by song all they way through before judging the record too harshly (as many other reviews have). Common gets a gang of artists to help him with this one and it pays off in most ways. Before Common used Jazz, Soul & Funk but now he uses elements of those as well as rock, psychedelia & even swing on one track. Common continues too use a great steady flow and on point lyrics while rocking the mic with this one and he gets more abstract than usual which suits the beats Now I will get to my favourite tracks, normally I would put the most interesting songs but all of them are interesting on this record. Here we go....

Soul Power - One of the few tracks with just Common rapping, it is a straight battle rap which I like to see him bust out every so often. Common throws a subliminal diss very cleverly at what appears to be Ja Rule for trying to be 2Pac and also takes shots at MC's more concerned with acting than their microphone technique (Ice Cube anyone? Oh wait I don't want to say that or he will make me bow down like he's Yoda....nuff said).

Electric Wire Hustle Flower ft/ Sonny of P.O.D - Here Common is joined by Sunny of P.O.D for a slamming guitar driven track that just pounds out of the speakers. Nice abstract rhymes, with rhythm you won't find on most hip hop records

Come Close ft/ Mary J. Blige - this is a nice, soulful, RnBish track. Common comes of with another strong love song to his woman, Eryka Badu. To me this isn't as good as The Light but it does have some choice flavour to it. Nice Mary J. Vocals. (Neptunes produced track, me thinks a little selling out but good production is good production but Jay Dilla could have pulled it off)
Between Me, You & Liberation - This is perhaps the most personal song which tells two stories of sexual liberation. I love the laid back beat which should satisfy the Common "purists" out there with it's production style.

All in all a fantastic, interesting album that isn't any better or any worse than Commons other albums it's just different and great as it is in album standards. It's ok people take time to absorb the album fully it won't kill you. The album cover is real kold too like his past albums this one having the faces of all the people that he felt make the album possible in the background. Common has evolved into a real musical artist who is consistently a pleasure to listen to. Four stars, pick it up.

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

I've always been a fan of Common Sense, who has always served up an elegant mix of hip-hop, fused with other influences. On his prior albums, this influence has mainly been jazz. "Electric Circus", however, brings a new sound to the table, offering a fuse of rock, soul, jazz, and hip-hop. The finished project is the best album EVER!
From the Intro to the end, "Electric" startled me as to how one who lives now could make music that sounded like it was SO far in the future. When Gangster Rap has long gone, artists will turn to stuff like this for inspiration.
Tracks like "Soul Power", the first following the instrumental intro, really spoke to me, at first. The music behind Common's intelligent, enlightened lyrics, was like nothing I'd ever heard before, making me wonder how he made those warped whistling sounds. I couldn't tell whether it was Protools, Synthesizers, or live instruments. In any case, I loved it, and it only got better from there.
There's no bad track on the album, but the only song that isn't spectacular is "I Got A Right Ta Feel High" produced by the Neptunes, with Pharell singing the chorus in a rough, truck driver tone. While it was enjoyable, it didn't strike me as groundbreaking, like the rest of the album.
Despite that, this album shines, and if it isn't nominated for best album of the year in the Grammys, then I won't know what to say.

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.