shop | mailing lists
musicOMH
music: album reviews
DJ Shadow - The Outsider (Island)
UK release date: 18 September 2006
4 stars
DJ Shadow - The Outsider

buy this title


track listing

1. Outsider
2. This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
3. 3 Freaks
4. Droop E Drop
5. Turf Dancing
6. Keep 'Em Close
7. Seein' Thangs
8. Broken Levee Blues
9. Artifact
10. Skullfuckery
11. Backstage Girl
12. Triplicate/Something Happened That Day
13. Tiger
14. Erase You
15. What Have I Done
16. You Made It
17. Enuff
18. Dats My Part
A new DJ Shadow album is quite an event, The Outsider being just his third since he captivated the world with Entroducing in 1996. Where that record frequently amazed with its innovative approach to sampling and texture, The Outsider presents a very different side to its author.

Recent events in his life, described by the beatsmith as "several run-ins with mortality", have taken their toll on his musical personality. The knock-on effect has been a decision to venture back to where it all started, with the directness of rap and hip hop. So it's out with the experimental samples, and, for the first half of the record at least, in with upfront vocals and stripped down grooves.

With a much leaner sound at his disposal Davis gets straight down to business, though the lengthy opening definition of an outsider prompts immediate worries that this might be a self-indulgent sprawl. Thankfully this proves not to be the case, as the warmly soulful This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way) serves as a prelude before the guest rappers get down to action.

There's enough guests for a football squad on this album. Even in the first two rap tracks the rhythmically jerky 3 Freaks and the cliché-ridden Turf Dancing feature a multitude of voices, upfront and aggressive. It's hip hop bluster without any subtlety, almost too conscious of being opposite to its maker's past. Later on the single Enuff also strips down to simple chords and beat, supporting an easier going chorus from Q-Tip and Lateef The Truth Speaker.

And then, without warning, things change dramatically. The catalyst for this is the frantic instrumental Artifact, a remnant of a collaboration with Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha, where a gunfire drum solo seems to purge all the cutting edges of the first half. Musically spent, Davis can then concentrate on bringing a few nuances back to his style.

As a consequence the second half is a different story. The sprawling Backstage Girl starts this as a long story of temptation and groupies, its nagging guitar riff returning to your head the second the album is over. It's a moving tale of weakness, and hangs over the following Triplicate, where gently lilting harp arpeggios tug regretfully at the heartstrings.

Once again Davis' musical versatility is evident, whether supplying vehicles for the ensemble rap bluster of the early tracks or an unexpectedly Indian slant to The Tiger, featuring Kasabian's Sergio Pizzorno and Chris Karloff. More effective is Stateless singer Chris James, who bends his vocal around the weirdness of Erase You and the soft centred You Made It.

This is a fascinating record that will initially bewilder, but rewards repeated listens. DJ Shadow may have disappointed some with this new directness, but The Outsider has plenty to say, and is a strongly communicative listen.

  share: 
Facebook | Digg | del.icio.us | more
Mercury Prize 2009 nominees
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE SPEECH DEBELLE KASABIAN FRIENDLY FIRES
LA ROUX BAT FOR LASHES THE HORRORS GLASVEGAS
SWEET BILLY PILGRIM THE INVISIBLE LISA HANNIGAN LED BIB




out this week:
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young The Hidden Cameras - Origin: Orphan Weezer - Raditude
Luke Haines - 21st Century Man Espers - III Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
coming soon:
Martha Wainwright - Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, a Paris Robbie Williams - Reality Killed The Video Star Mariah Carey - Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel
Will Young - The Hits Joe Goddard - Harvest Festival The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than The Stars EP
recent releases:
Cheryl Cole - Three Words McAlmont & Nyman - The Glare Miike Snow - Miike Snow
Devendra Banhart - What Will Be Will Be Kings Of Convenience - Declaration Of Dependence Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
Portico Quartet - Isla Annie - Don't Stop Whitney Houston - I Look To You
The Antlers - Hospice BEAK> - BEAK> Atlas Sound - Logos
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport The Flaming Lips - Embryonic Shakira - She Wolf
more album reviews
TOP ARTICLES NOW
GIG: Shirley Bassey dazzles Camden

GIG: HEALTH slay 30 minutes

MORE GIG REVIEWS: Maps, Smokey Robinson, Editors, iLiKETRAiNS, Dizzee Rascal, Doves, The Big Pink, Soap&Skin, Girls, Robbie Williams...

ALBUM: Cheryl Cole: 3 Words

FESTIVAL: In The City 2009

INTERVIEW: Miike Snow on deeply darkly danceable music and why cold is good

RELATED ARTICLES
ALBUM:
DJ Shadow - The Outsider

GIG:
DJ Shadow @ Brixton Academy, London

SINGLE:
DJ Shadow - Enuff

MUSIC DVD:
DJ Shadow - In Tune And On Time

EXTERNAL LINKS
DJ Shadow



  more album reviews...



musicOMH
about us
contact
copyright
home
elsewhere
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
Soundcloud
MySpace
© 1999-2009 OMH