The Headphone Masterpiece

Cody Chesnutt | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 21, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Ready Set Go
• ASIN: B00007MI2A
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,891 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Magic In A Mortal Minute

2. With Me In Mind

3. Upstarts In A Blowout

4. Boylife In America

5. B**ch, I'm Broke

6. Serve This Royalty

7. The Seed

8. Enough Of Nothing

9. Setting The System

10. The Most Beautiful Shame

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Family On Blast

2. My Woman, My Guitars

3. Somebody's Parents

4. When I Find Time

5. Eric Burdon

6. Juicin' The Dark

7. Five On A Joyride

8. Daylight

9. So Much Beauty In The Subconcious

10. Daddy's Baby

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When you put the word "masterpiece" in the title of your debut double CD, you'd damn well better be able to back it up. Thankfully, Cody Chesnutt has the goods. This precocious, sex-obsessed, spaced-out, spiritual singer is practically bursting at the seams with talent and ideas. With The Headphone Masterpiece, he delivers a homemade, lo-fi stew made of smooth funk, forceful rock, and gritty hip-hop, all topped off by the sweet-crooning voice of a great soul singer. Across 36 tracks, Chesnutt invites you into his psyche, and it's a unique journey to say the least, wending as it does from the weightiest of spiritual concerns to that morning's hard-on. So is it a masterpiece? Well, not quite. Even Mr. Chesnutt must believe that he's got better music still in him. But The Headphone Masterpiece is an ambitious opening salvo from an artist who may well take his place in the celebrated lineage that extends from Hendrix and Sly Stone through George Clinton, Prince, D'Angelo, and so on. Once he learns to harness his surging electricity, Chesnutt may offer us a true masterpiece--or even a few of them. --Marc Greilsamer

Product Description

The illegitimate son of Marvin Gaye, rocks with the heart of Hendrix & the soul of Prince, the result? A real raw Soul with a taste of black Rock 'n' Roll! Cody is featured on the Roots' single 'The Seed' & the original version is on this album. CD 2 is a

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring Bedroom and Basement Musicians Everywhere, December 24, 2002

By 

Austin Davidson "Music Lover" (Ventura, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Headphone Masterpiece (Audio CD)

Cody ChesnuTT plays a little bit of everything. He does a little rock, a little soul, some funk some folk some hip hop. ?uestlove of The Roots described him as Tracy Chapman meets Beck on acid. The album was produced entirely in his bedroom, which he dubbed The Sonic Promiseland. This is one of the best albums of the year and Cody should be well on his way to superstardom, but what do I know about the fickle world of pop music? What I do know is that this is raw, catchy, homemade music. My favorites are The Seed (the true highlight of the album, sort of a Ric James style '80s funk song) Look Good In Leather (a '60s soul pop song) Boylife In America (Prince and Bob Dylan) and so many other on this 36 song introduction to Cody. Some songs run only 30 seconds and you think, well he should have worked more on this song it's unfinished, but I believe the charm is in the brevity. This album inspires me to no end mostly because Cody did it all himself in his bedroom on his own terms and he's selling it through his own label. He truly is punk rock, and I think maybe this sort of music coming from kid's attics and bedrooms and basements and garages is definitly the next wave in music because nothing can hinder the music, it's all DIY.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We May Have a Genius On Our Hands, February 17, 2003

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Headphone Masterpiece (Audio CD)

This album deserves to be noticed if only for its sheer chutzpah. You gotta give a guy props when he records a two-disc album with 36 tracks in his bedroom and plays all the instruments himself. Now that's ambition. Some aspects of this album prove that Chesnutt did it for himself without worrying about what an audience would think, given some very self-indulgent and non-entertaining moments. The homemade nature is evident in poor sound quality, several recording errors, and a lot of cheap drum machines and sequencers. Regardless, Chesnutt proves to be an emerging songwriting genius and is a very impressive multi-instrumentalist with a great voice. Lyrically Chesnutt is all over the music map from loveman romance to gangsta boasting to soulful philosophizing, and even blissfully uncool childhood odes in "Up in the Treehouse."

Musically, Chesnutt starts from a classic soul foundation but he is clearly interested in all types of music. The album contains distinct examples of many genres: classic rock in "Upstairs in a Blowout," funk in "Setting the System," new wave in "The World is Coming to My Party," jazz rock in "When I Find Time," near-techno in "Juicin' the Dark," and 60's boogie in "Look Good in Leather." Other than that though, most of the rest of the album features interchangeable ballads with Chesnutt accompanying himself on guitar or keyboards, or undeveloped snippets of less than a minute, which could have been expanded into another album of cool songs with some outside encouragement. A good example is "The Seed" which was remade in far stronger form, with Chesnutt as special guest, by The Roots on their album Phrenology. After this homemade magnum opus, let's get Chesnutt a real record deal and producer, and with more focus his next work might be a real headphone masterpiece.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Be Mislead, October 5, 2005

By 

G. Brajczewski "gregg" (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Headphone Masterpiece (Audio CD)

Coupled with understanding, this is some of the best music ever. The lyrics, the subjects, the attitudes, the philosophy, the psyche - it's all over the place! But the soul...the soul is right out there in the open. There's a few things you need to understand about this album. First - the fuzzy sound. Look at it from a musician's standpoint, especially a musician who produced his entire album with the exception of one instrument in one song. Fuzzy sound means originality. It's the hard copy. Not tinkered with, not refined. It's not the sound quality that counts - it's content. On even the fuzziest and most poorly produced of songs - what are we left with to enjoy. The soul of the musician. His words and his music. Fuzziness is not a bad thing here; not a production failure. It's a creative technique, a personal mark. This man gives us 36 songs. What recent pop music album can you recall that comes close to that song count? Most deliver one third the quantity and one eighth the quality. So - fuzzy is good. Next subject - the album is called The Headphone Masterpiece. It was literally created to sound best over a specific pair of headphones - a model of Sony's I believe. Anyhow, think about your truly favorite songs and when you really discovered what your favorite songs were; the songs you thought were most deeply musical, most meaningful. I'd be willing to bet it was when you had it in your CD player or your iPod. Usually playing music over speakers is for background music and not concentration. Thus, an album optimized for headphones and thus called The Headphone Masterpiece calls for reflection and concentration on the music. That's not all - as a musician I can identify, and hope to communicate to you, the spontaneity involved in the creation of a song. Many artists fit their ideas, beliefs and feelings into their musical style. Some artists, like Cody, let the soul choose its medium - be it gangsta' lyrics in ***** I'm Broke, tender sacrifice in No One Will, a childish reverence of fellowship in Up in the Treehouse, or absolute poetic anarchy in Daddy's Baby. This is a brilliant technique used by some of the best musicians [i.e. The Beatles] and remarkable and original individuals as well. Speaking personally - the first time I listened to this album, I felt like I was reading my favorite book. I literally was on a journey. I couldn't bare each song ending, but I couldn't wait to hear the next song. I couldn't believe what I just heard when it ended and I couldn't wait to hear it again. I made best friends with some songs and I was filled with hope that one day I could achieve everything that Cody Chesnutt achieved in making this album. This album is his soul turned inside out, recorded intimately in his most private place - the bedroom of his home - and then turned loose to us. Show me any other musician in the history of music that recorded an entire album themselves in their own bedroom. Don't be mislead by what magazines and MTV tell you what music is. Let yourself decide, but let yourself be led a little - give this album a try with some fresh understanding. Since everything about the album is so tru - a universal truth also holds true - if you get to know a person intimately, inside and out, good and bad - no matter who they are - you will never be let down. This album doesn't let down - it lifts up. I can honestly say that when I listen to the music of Cody Chesnutt - my serenity, outlook and hope skyrocket. I can't say enough good about this guy and this album. Give it a try - you won't be let down.