Electric Circus (album)
| Electric Circus | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Common | ||||||||||
| Released | December 10, 2002 | |||||||||
| Recorded | 2001–2002 | |||||||||
| Genre | Hip hop, alternative hip hop | |||||||||
| Length | 73:26 | |||||||||
| Label |
MCA 088 113 114-1 |
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| Producer | ?uestlove, J Dilla, James Poyser, Pino Palladino, The Neptunes, Karriem Riggins, Jeff Lee Johnson | |||||||||
| Common chronology | ||||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 80/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Entertainment Weekly | A |
| The Guardian | |
| Los Angeles Times |  |
| NME | 8/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 6.5/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 6/10 |
| The Village Voice | B |
Electric Circus is the fifth studio album by rapper Common, released December 10, 2002 on the now-defunct MCA Records. The album was highly anticipated and praised by many critics for its ambitious vision. However, it was not as commercially successful as his previous album, Like Water for Chocolate, selling under 300,000 copies. An eclectic album, Electric Circus featured fusions of several genres such as hip hop, pop, rock, electronic, and neo soul. "I wasn't feeling hip hop," the rapper remarked. "So my motivation for that album were other genres of music, like Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. It wasn't hip hop." This was Common's second and last album for MCA, and the label's final release prior to its absorption into Geffen Records.
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'.
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, Lætitia Sadier (of Stereolab), Cee-Lo Green, 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. 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 singing the hook in a blues-inspired style. A triumphant sounding Common proclaims himself "the only cat in hip hop that can go into a thrift shop, bring that get up to the ghetto and get props". The song was placed on the B-Side of "Come Close".
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