Common

Common

As he presents his fifth and most personal album to date, Common invites you to enter and experience the Electric Circus, a vibrant musical wonderland fertilized by the ripe nectar of bold innovation and individuality. “To me, Electric Circus describes the energy of my new album,” he explains. “Electric represents the energy that can be transferred from me to other people through the music, and Circus represents the fun and freedom in the music, which is cohesively linked under one presentation. I think you can close your eyes and picture a lot of different colors when you hear it, but it still has a certain darkness.”

Electric Circus is an audacious endeavor that marks a defining moment in an impressive career that began ten years ago with the release of Common’s debut album, 1992’s Can I Borrow a Dollar? That effort was praised for its down-to-earth vibe and intelligent rhymes, but the unapologetic middle-class sensibilities conveyed on Common’s second album, 1994’s Resurrection, which yielded the hip-hop classic “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” earned him the respect enjoyed by kindred spirits such as A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul.

Following the release of his deeply introspective third album, 1997’s One Day It’ll All Make Sense, which addressed serious issues like family planning, Common relocated to New York to heighten his visibility and become more involved in the music industry. After signing with MCA Records and settling into the rhythm of long-distance fatherhood (he’s the proud parent of a 5-year-old daughter, Omoye Assata Lynn, named in the spirit of exiled black activist Assata Shakur), Common unleashed 2000’s noticeably more musical Like Water for Chocolate. The album was a versatile mix of gravity, sardonic humor and soulful hip-hop beats that spawned the Grammy-nominated single, “The Light.” Like Water for Chocolate also signaled Common’s emergence as a member of the Soulquarians-a collective of musicians that includes Roots drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, beat-maker Jay Dee and keyboardist James Poyser, among others-which reconvened in January 2001 to produce the bulk of Electric Circus.

The free-spirited energy that guided Like Water for Chocolate opened the door for Common to reach new heights and explore bottomless depths on his latest journey into sound: Electric Circus is anchored by an uncommon and refreshing air of open-mindedness, both musically and lyrically. Indeed, while Common’s previous albums displayed his passion for soul music by either collaborating with contemporary soul babies such as D’Angelo and Bilal or sampling legends like Stevie Wonder and the Family Stand, Electric Circus finds him stretching the limits of hip-hop by reflecting his newfound appreciation of rock artists such as Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Traffic, Van Morrison and John Lennon. Take, for instance, the aptly titled cut “New Wave,” which features vocalist Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab. Undulating between hard and soft textures, it’s a deliciously inventive track that helps Common succeed at fulfilling the ambitious mission he set out to achieve with Electric Circus-“to create something beyond what we thought hip-hop could be so that we can understand that hip-hop can be whatever we create.”

Amid the album’s most musically adventurous songs, “Jimi Was a Rock Star” stands out above all. It’s a psychedelic and magnificently strange duet with Erykah Badu in homage of its namesake wherein Common sings (for the first time, ever!) rather than raps. “That song is an experience and an experiment for me,” he says. “Sometimes, I can’t even believe it’s on my album because it’s strange for me to hear myself singing-with somebody who can really sing!”

The tone and lyrics on Electric Circus are equally informed by Common’s broadened state of mind. Produced by the Neptunes and featuring Mary J. Blige, “Come Close” is a tender love song that was inspired by Erykah Badu. Also produced by the Neptunes, “I Got A Right To” is a rugged proclamation of self-determination and individuality in which Common declares, “I ain’t switch over, I just made my own lane.” “Star 69” is an erotic ode to phone sex that was produced by the Soulquarians and features none other than Prince on keys. And buttressed by Cee-Lo’s sanctified, soulful vocal stylings, “Between Me, You and Liberation” is a sobering song about people finding freedom in different things, including self-love, death and homosexuality.

“I’m at a new place in my life so I felt a certain amount of freedom, peace and enjoyment while I was making this album,” Common explains. “When we first started recording, Ahmir asked me, ‘You wanna go out of space or underwater?’ I said, ‘Both!’ I ain’t tryin’ to do what people expect, I ain’t shuttin’ shit down ’cause it’s white and I ain’t gon’ disrespect nobody ’cause they homosexual. I can’t even work like that no more. I just wanna go where I wanna go. I’ve traveled around the world, experienced love, hurt and joy, and I’ve been introduced to so much new music, so it was fun for me to interpret and express all that on my album. More than anything else, Electric Circus is an expression of my freedom, and it’s probably more [reflective of] who I am than any of my previous albums.”


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.