Common “Universal Mind Control”
So I was going to review this album a few weeks ago, when I was first given a promo copy, but I made the mistake of listening to it before I sat down to do the review. Ever since I have been unsuccessfully trying to convince myself to give it one more listen. I decided today would be the day while I was at Burn Rubber and Cliff Skighwalker claimed that I couldn’t hate it as much as Ketchums. After that was said I decided it was time to torture myself for 38 minutes and 11 seconds and take one last listen to UMC and let everyone know what I think of this album.
Before I really get started with this review I would like to make it clear just how badly I don’t want to listen to this album again. Since I sat down to write this I have been refreshing my Twitter page every 30 seconds hoping there is something there to distract me, made several trips to the kitchen where I already know that there’s no food and made some phone calls that I have been putting off for months. It should also be noted that after the first trip to the kitchen I pressed play on my iTunes and in under a second completely quit the program (instead of just pressing pause) because I knew what was about to play. Okay, that’s enough procrastinating, time for the torture.
Lyrically this album is lazy. The rhyme schemes are overly simplistic, half the lines don’t even rhyme and if they do they are single syllable or bitten. Putting aside the rhyme schemes the overall content of this album is lackluster. There is a mix of sub-par “battle” tracks and girl tracks. The girl tracks are full of corny pick-up lines and the “battle” tracks are so underwhelming I would put my money on Eli Porter in a battle against Common based off this album.
UMC would be better as an instrumental album, but even with that being said it still wouldn’t be any good. The production throughout the album is very predictable, all the girl tracks sound sappy and all the “battle” tracks sound like low-budget, over-produced club “bangers.” It should also be noted that even with the predictable production this album fits together very poorly, a few interludes and a different track order is needed (but still wouldn’t save the album).
Seriously Common, what were you thinking when you made this album? I understand if you were trying to do something different and/or be happy and uplifting, but just like 88-Keys shouldn’t of made a concept album you shouldn’t of made this album. While UMC is less then 39 minutes long, it took over twice that to play because of having to pause the album after every track to prepare myself for the next 4 minutes of torture.
Even with this album being available for purchase on Zune.com for 99 cents, it isn’t even worth that. As I told several people, the only way I would buy this album is if somebody gave me $11, $1 for this album and $10 for an album that wouldn’t immediately end up in my trash, like a solo album by Tbaby. If my feelings for this album aren’t clear enough already I will leave you with this simple equation:
TBaby > Poak Chops > Asher Roth > Auto-Tune > Universal Mind Control.
P.S. Common please go back to the 2000 and earlier days or stick to movies.
5 Responses to 'Common “Universal Mind Control”'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Common “Universal Mind Control”'.
wow, that’s pretty brutal. sounds like i really need to stay away from this album. damn.
d_enajetic
14 Dec 08 at 1:49 am
AH YES THE HATE WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! Yo, I’m laughing so hard right now I’m gonna have to wait to post my actual comment LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trilogy
14 Dec 08 at 3:08 am
i,ve been looking forward to this album since it was supposed to come out in June.what a disappointment. I can listen to a couple tracks but this shit is Jason Terry
Matt C
14 Dec 08 at 12:23 pm
thanks for sparing me the time i would have taken to give this album a chance. seeing the song with cee lo on ellen was already bad but this seals the deal. i’m just happy he didn’t name it invincible summer cuz that woulda sucked.
invincilana
15 Dec 08 at 10:13 pm
also the softwear clothing line with microsoft wasn’t a good look either
invincilana
15 Dec 08 at 10:14 pm