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100While those seeking a quick fix of cheap thrills hip hop will be disappointed, anyone who likes their music lush, multi-layered and lyrical should pick this up without delay.
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Although he can be self-righteous, scattered, and grim, a team of truly youthful-minded producers is there to color the gray.
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100While Talib's Quality and The Roots' Phrenology break new ground for both acts, Electric Circus is clearly the most adventurous of the trio of releases.
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100A record of startling breadth. [Feb 2003, p.96]
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The Electric Circus turns out to be a place that exists in Hip-hopolis and Rawk City and Bacharachville and DixieLand and Heaven, all at the same time. Holy crap, people, Com did it: he broke on through to the other side.
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Common has just gone way, way off the hip-hop map.
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80This is a brilliant, visionary album and needs rewarding with units - MTV won't have the scoobiest what to do, radio programmers will freak, and hip-hop will, once again, move forward.
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80To be filed alongside the Root's recent Phrenology. [Mar 2003, p.95]
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80A hip-hop record brimming with soul and artistry. [Jan 2003, p.74]
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Electric Circus does suffer from that which ails many contemporary hip-hop albums -- too many guests and a generally lengthy program drag this one down a tad. Nonetheless, Electric Circus is a brave and ruthless statement wrapped in sincerity.
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80It works... stretching rap into weird new shapes. [Feb 2003, p.97]
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Even the psychedelic overreach shows a most uncommon artist at work. [Feb 2003, p.64]
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Outfitted in this music, however, Common's pretensions stand up and do jumping jacks.
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70If Prince had ever successfully come to grips with hip hop, this is what the result might have sounded like.
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Electric Circus is a wild, vibrant trip billowing with purple-haze guitars, ethereal choruses and warped scratching.
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Like The Roots' new Phrenology, Electric Circus possesses many of the weaknesses associated with ambition: a bloated running time, the faint aroma of pretension, an obligatory spoken-word piece, and songs that outlast their welcome.
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So, is this genius or is this madness? As enjoyable as it is on occasion, I’m inclined to side with the latter.
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65Com comes off as alternately uncomfortable and downright lazy, half-speaking-- or worse, singing-- new-age revelations to the masses.
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60The storytelling here isn't as sharp as on Common's previous albums. [Feb 2003, p.100]
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Beautifully engineered, Circus sounds chocolaty and recombinant even when it doth protest the Enlightened Guy angle too much.
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50One problem: Common is an MC, not a musician. Which makes it difficult for him to achieve his lofty goals. Mostly he fails.
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40Its attempts at a more ethereal sound crash up against Common's cumbersome intellectualizing. [#13, p.91]
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ScottyS10
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JimmyP10