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Electric Circus |  | Artist: Common
Label: Universal / Island
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.98
as of 26/11/2009 00:04 GMT details
You Save: £4.01 (45%)
New (12) Used (10) from £1.80
Seller: Amazon.co.uk
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 41349
Format: Explicit Lyrics
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Running Time: 76 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 008811316327
EAN: 0008811316327
ASIN: B00007JGOO
Release Date: December 23, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 5 to 9 days
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| Tracks:
| • | Ferris Wheel | | • | Soul Power | | • | Aquarius | | • | Electric Wire Hustle Flower | | • | The Hustle | | • | Come Close To Me | | • | New Wave | | • | Star * 69 (PS With Love) | | • | I Got A Right Ta | | • | Between Me, You Liberation | | • | I Am Music | | • | Jimi Was A Rock Star | | • | Heaven Somewhere | | • | The Light |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Rock roll has grabbed Common by the neck and given him a good shake. With its heavy, multi-layered sound, IElectric Circus/I is steeped in the Chicago-born and Brooklyn-based rapper's newfound love for Pink Floyd, Traffic and, above all, Jimi Hendrix. But, like many new converts to anything, Common goes a little off the deep end. His ambitious quest to expand the boundaries of hip-hop is crammed to the gills with a thousand motifs and is a little too Ibusy/I to be a complete success. Perhaps not surprisingly, Common's rhymes (sample lyric: "my mind screams like Al Green to stay together!") take a distant second place to the complex musical landscape he's fashioned. In addition, a sidereal array of vocalists (including Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, Mary J Blige, Jill Scott, Cee-lo, Bilal and Common's main squeeze, Erykah Badu) and musicians (Prince, Bobbi Humphrey, Nicholas Payton) add to the sonic density. All in all, IElectric Circus/I mightn't strike the universal chord that Common sought, but it's a bold, elaborate project that's definitely worth a listen. I--Rebecca Levine/I
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 It does make sense... August 31, 2003
Making Sense (London)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Being a big fan of his previous work i was expecting a CD in a very similar vain. Reading the comments from other users it did seem as if this album would be slightly different - but i figured it would inevitably just be slightly funkier.pUpon looking at the CC it becomes immediately apparent that he has collaborated with pretty much anyone of note on the album - Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige, Omar and Bilal just to name a few. And its pretty much every track.pFirst listen of the album and the reaction was 'what the hell?' I pretty much hated it. One or 2 tracks did stand out (most notable track 10) but apart from that it just sounded over produced with far too much going on in each song and definitely a huge step away from his previous efforts of chilled out beats and stunning lyrics. I was very disappointed and put it to one side.pBut i felt it deserved another airing last week and threw it in the car .. once again i didnt like it much .. but rather then skipping forward to the next track i persevered with each track in turn. It was then i discovered how amazing the album is. pTo put such an album together with such a variety of sounds, collaborators and tunes really takes a special person - COmmon is that person. The album is still a mix of style - but thats good. We have become conditioned to listening to one type of album .. to throw it all out fo the window and try several different styles on one album is really brave - but it works ... and works well.pSo in short buy the album and listen to it a few times .. and as always with Common - its all about the lyrics.
An unCommon album December 16, 2002
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Okay, this is a fantastic hip-hop album. But that's what it is - a hip-hop album. While Amazon, as well as others, have characterized Electric Circus as some sort of genre-bending novelty, it is not. It is what hip-hop should be.pIt's original, yes. It's got some guitar chords thrown in there and it gets a little spacey at times (not in a boring way), but at its core it is a hip-hop album. Thumping beats, Common's impeccable rhymes and, like I said, the fact that it doesn't sound like everything else out there earn it an easy five stars.pAlong with The Roots' Phrenology, Hi-Tek's Hiteknology, Talib Kweli's High Quality and Slum Village's Trinity albums (guess there's an odd theme of albums ending in "y"), this ranks in the top five hip-hop albums of 2002. I just bought it a couple of days ago, so right now I'd put it number one, but I get euphoric about these things.
One of the most original masterpieces in Hip Hop February 3, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
For the followup to 'Like Water For Chocolate' Common has teamed up with The Soulquarians again and they prove to be a winning team again.br'Electric Circus' sounds nothing like LWFC. It still has the same soul in it but Common Co. added a lot of psycedelic influences in it. The result is an eclectic album that is inspired by a lot of old music but still sounds modern and inovative at the same time.brThe biggest surprise of the album is 'Electric Wire Hustler Flower' wich features members from the NuMetal-unit P.O.D.: somehow this unusual and, lets just face it, discouraging combination proves to be one of the best tracks on the album.brThis may not be everyone's cup of tea but 'Electric Circus' is one of those albums that shows how much unexplored teritory there still is in Hip Hop.
Uncommonly Good April 25, 2003
Danfish
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Hip Hop is changing" notes Chicago-based jazz hop maestro Common on his fifth album. pWhich is ironic, really. pBecause anyone with two ears and a functioning brain will tell that besides the likes of the Roots, RJD2 and the man himself, hip hop ain't going nowhere. However, is a different kettle of makerel altogether.pSome people have called this album 'ground breaking'; claiming that it will pave the way for a new, more experimental phase in rap. pIt won't. pWhy?pBecause where Common is going, can't nobody follow. pNeed proof? Check out 'Electric Wire' (featuring Sonny from God-bothering beefcake rockers POD) for instance. It's abrasive, dangerous and utterly, utterly unique. In fact, my first instinct when I heard it was to turn it off (I was on a crowded train and it made me suddenly became worried that we had crashed - we hadn't). Limp Bizkit and their nu metal underlings can push the rap-rock envelope as much as they want, but 'Electric Wire' is the closest hip hop has ever got to capturing the malevolent spirit of heavy rock.pLikewise, the more commercial tracks such as the stunning/silly 'New Wave' (featuring Laetitia from indie band Stereolab) and 'I Got a Right Ta' just don't sound like anything else anybody has made before, or anything anybody will ever be able to succesfully imitate. The latter track is produced by the Neptunes.pLikewise, in anyone else's hands 'I Love Music' (featuring Jill Scott) would be the absurd track ever recorded. With its jaunty trumpet patterns and lindy hopping rhythm it defies comparison. It sounds kind of like a hip hop version of King Louie's 'I Wanna Be Like You' from Jungle Book. This is a good thing.pThey say there's a fine line between madness and genius. But in Common's case it just isn't true - he's far too methodical and purposefully iconoclastic in his approach to music to be considered even slightly 'crazy'.pBasically, the long and short of it is this: if you like hip hop, buy it, because if you don't, you simply don't like hip hop. And if you don't like hip hop, then buy it, because its like nothing you've heard before...
Ground breaking! January 15, 2003
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This album is ground breaking in the same way that "3 feet high and rising" and "It takes a nation of millions..." were. As other reviewers have pointed out it IS hip hop...just not contemporary hip hop as we know it ( ie. spiritually arrid, vacuous, mass produced tosh like Nelly!). This experimentation is the very basis of hip hop:-think flash and bam claiming Kraftwerk and the stones and re-contextualising it in the South Bronx!pThis lp mixes sex and spirituality in a way seldom seen since Prince dropped "Sign Of The Times". I would be unsurprised if people slept on this lp as it is contrary to the blandness of nearly everything else out there.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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