New Music Reviews - 12/20/2011 - Common and Kevin Hearn

Common The Dreamer, The Believer - Prolific hip-hop artist Lonnie Lynn Junior, AKA Common, finds time away from his acting career (Date Night and Happy Feet Two) to release his ninth studio album.  Nas and John Legend provide guest vocals on individual tracks and Mya Angelou has a spoken word part at the end of one of the tracks.

There are a handful of very enjoyable tracks on The Dreamer with songs like "Ghetto Dreams" (ft. Nas) having extremely clever lyrics and a big hook to draw you in but the album as a whole is very hit-or-miss.  For every creative track like "Blue Sky," which creatively samples the 70's great Electric Lights Orchestra song "Mr. Blue Sky" and transforms it into something new, you get a track like "Lovin' I Lost" which, despite its throwback R&B melody, lacks the imagination and flow that we expect from great tracks by Common.

It's an above average album from Common who can still create crafty tunes although that skill is a bit inconsistent on this release.

Score: 7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Blue Sky" [sample it below] and "Lovin' I Lost"

Kevin Hearn Cloud Maintenance - Kevin Hearn is a Canadian musician best known for being the keyboardist in the band Barenaked Ladies although he also is the frontman for Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle.  This is Hearn's second solo studio album.

The music presented on this album is mainly downtempo electropop with minimalistic instrumentation.  It took me a while to get into the morose feeling album but once I was in the proper mindset I found a lot of subtle beauty on a number of the tracks.  "She Waved" uses  slow tempo synthesizer work layered over a simple but catchy piano refrain which adds depth to the haunting lyrics.

Fortunately, the album doesn't just give us downtrodden songs with pop-heavier tunes like "Don't Shuffle Me Back" helping to bring life into what would be an otherwise depressing disc.  It's a decent album for when you're feeling down but the heavy feel of the disc makes it a difficult one to have on constant rotation on your favorite listening device.

Score: 7/10
Song(s) to Sample: "She Waved" and "Don't Shuffle Me Back"

Merry Christmas--Joyeux Noel--Glaedelig Jul--Feliz Navidad to everyone out there!