Electric Circus (album)

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Untitled
This article is about a music album. For other uses of the name, please see Electric Circus (disambiguation).

Electric Circus is an album by rapper Common, released in December 2002. The album was highly anticipated, and although many critics praised it for its ambitious vision, it didn't sell as well as his previous album, Like Water For Chocolate. An eclectic album, it features fusions of several genres such as Hip hop, Pop, Rock, Electronic, and Neo Soul.

Overview

Common worked with a large (and eclectic) number of musicians on Electric Circus. Among them were Mary J. Blige (who provided vocals for the album's lead single, "Come Close"), The Neptunes, Laetitia Sadier (of Stereolab), Cee-Lo, Bilal and Jill Scott. The music on Electric Circus challenges the boundaries of the hip hop genre in a similar fashion to The Roots' Phrenology (2002) and Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003). This is especially the case on tracks like the grungy "Electric Wire Hustler Flower" (featuring P.O.D.'s Sonny Sandoval in the chorus), the abstract "Aquarius", and the electronic "New Wave". Erykah Badu joins Common for a duet on ("Jimi Was A Rock Star"), which is a dedication to Jimi Hendrix.

Content

The second Neptunes collaboration on the record, the cross-genre "I Got A Right Ta", is a musical departure from the styles of both artists, and features Pharrell Williams singing the hook in a bluesy manner. A triumphant sounding Common proclaims himself "the only cat in hip hop that can go into a thrift shop, connect, get up to the ghetto and get props". The song was placed on the B-Side of "Come Close".

"Between Me, You & Liberation", in which Common discusses sexual abuse and its effects on a young woman, confronting his homophobia after learning about the sexual preference of a longtime friend, and the loss of a relative to Cancer, contains themes wholly unusual for a rap song, and is perhaps, the rapper's most vunerable moment on record. About "Liberation..." Pop Matters wrote that it's "one of those rare occasions when a male hip-hop artist owns up to his investment in some of the genres more unsavory sexual politics". Musically, the song is very downbeat and moody, and features Cee-Lo (making this the pair's third collaboration after One Day...s "G.O.D.", and Like Water For Chocolates "A Song For Assata").

Following Like Water...s tributes to Fela Kuti, and Assata Shakur, Electric Circus pays homage to someone altogether more familiar (Jimi Hendrix) on "Jimi Was A Rock Star". The 8 minute-plus song is a duet between Common and his then-girlfriend Erykah Badu, which gradually builds up into it's cryptic, chant-lead final. This song is Common's first all-singing performance.

The centre-piece of the album, the epic "Heaven Somewhere", features 6 vocalists who all give insight into what their interpretation of Heaven is. Common's father Lonnie Lynn, ends the affair by saying:

Heaven is being pops
heaven is spending the day with your grandchildren
listenin' to they voices and they laughing and play
and then at the end of the day we hug we kiss and slowly they walk away
and then suddenly they turn and rush back to me and hug me round the knees
yeah, that's heaven to me

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Common admitted:

The label hadn't heard my music until I got near the end of the album. At one point it was like 'yo, man, you departed so far from the last album . . . the music you're making ain't really conducive to what's going on in modern music right now'.[1]

Reception

The album's style tended to divide critics; most praised its ambitious vision while some criticized it for the same reason. Most of the criticism tended to revolve around the albums experimental nature. Some felt Common had strayed too far from his previous sound. Longtime Common fans also viewed his relationship with Erykah Badu as having an overly experimental influence on him.

Official reviews, however, were mostly positive. "Pushing past the accepted boundaries of contemporary black pop" is how Pop Matters described the album.[2] Likewise, Play Louder agreed calling it "a brilliant, visionary album"[3], as did Rolling Stone who saw it as "breaking hip-hop rules with a freewheeling fearlessness". [4] Ink Blot Magazine's Matt Cibula called it his "favorite record of 2002".[5]

Despite the critical approval, the record debuted at #45 on the Billboard 200 chart - 31 spots lower than Like Water For Chocolate's highest chart position. With "Come Close" as the only single, the album quickly fell off the charts altogether, and MCA Records halted any further promotion. Part of the reason for its lack of promotion was MCA's absorption under Geffen Records in spring 2003, a mere four months after the albums release. Since both labels were under the Universal Music Group, Common's record contract would be carried over to Geffen but the handling of Electric Circus (an already under performing album) was neglected.

Perhaps as a response to criticism from certain fans, Common aimed for a non-experimental sound on his 2005 follow-up, Be.

Track listing

  1. "Ferris Wheel" – 2:48
  2. "Soul Power" – 4:38
  3. "Aquarius" – 4:54
  4. "Electric Wire Hustler Flower" – 5:54
    • Featuring Sonny (of P.O.D.)
    • Produced by ?uestlove and Jay Dee
  5. "The Hustle" – 4:20
  6. "Come Close" – 4:35
  7. "New Wave" – 5:08
  8. "Star *69 (PS With Love)" – 5:30
    • Produced by ?uestlove, James Poyser and Jay Dee
  9. "I Got A Right Ta" – 4:54
  10. "Between Me, You And Liberation" – 6:23
    • Featuring Cee-Lo
    • Produced by ?uestlove, James Poyser, Jay Dee and Pino Palladino
  11. "I Am Music" – 5:21
  12. "Jimi Was A Rock Star" – 8:32
    • Featuring Erykah Badu
    • Produced by ?uestlove, James Poyser, Jeff Lee Johnson and Pino Palladino
  13. "Heaven Somewhere" – 10:24
    • Featuring Omar, Cee-Lo, Bilal, Jill Scott, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, and Lonnie "Pops" Lynn
    • Produced by ?uestlove, James Poyser and Pino Palladino

Album singles

Single cover Single information
"Come Close"
  • Released: 2002
  • B-side: "I Got A Right Ta"
File:Commoncomecloser.jpg
 "Come Close Remix (Closer)" [Non Album Single]

"New Wave" and "The Hustle" were also released as singles for promotional use only [1] [2].

Album Chart Positions

Year Album Chart positions
The Billboard 200 Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums
2002 Electric Circus #47 #9

Singles Chart Positions

Year Song Chart positions
Billboard Hot 100 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks Hot Rap Singles
2002 "Come Close" #65 #21 #18

Special Edition release

A two disc version of the album was released. The original album features on the first disc with the same track listing. The second disc comprises material on DVD with the following track listing:

    • "Come Close" - music video, featuring Mary J. Blige
    • The Making of "Come Close" - a short documentary explaining the making of the video
    • "Electric Circus" - studio session footage

Trivia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Electric Circus (album).
  1. ^ "Popmatters.com" (Online interview). Retrieved February 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/c/common-electric.shtml
  3. ^ http://playlouder.com/review/+679common/
  4. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/common/albums/album/213002/review/6068234/electric_circus
  5. ^ http://www.inkblotmagazine.com/rev-archive/Common_Electric_Circus.htm
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