Universal Mind Control

Simply put this album is a sell out. Its made by Pharrel and has nothing of Common in it. If you have liked to any other Common album/song then avoid this album at all costs as its a huge disappointment (its not even worth downloading for free).

As a pop album its alrightish, its like Kanye's "808s and heartbreaks" album. As a Hip Hop album it signals the end of Hip Hop with one of her most influential artists having sold out.

I'm a big common fan and think that over the years he has produced some of the best and wisest tracks. If you havent already done so then purchase any of Common's OTHER albums as they are all great.

without paying too much attention to reviews, I wanted to listen to this myself before making a judgement. Well, unfortunately that couldn't be helped, i was told this album was wack and the worst album since China Doll, so as you can imagine, when I put it in to listen, I was ready to diss/cuss.
What I heard took me by surprise. Lets just say by the end of it, there was only
1 or 2 songs I wasn't really feeling and thats only because I didnt think the beat and the rhyme delivery fitted together at all.

What you will find with this album is that for each song, there is something to like n hate and this is for all the 10 songs on the album:
1. UMC: The beat on this track is bananas, not really feelin the way Com is flowing tho, but the beat is ill which carries the whole song and makes it fun.
2. Punch drunk love: with Kanye is annoying coz its catchy and fun to listen to but you want to hate coz Kanye is all over it and his music is kinda annoying right now.
3. Make my day: with Cee-lo is just good and kinda sounds like a Gnarls Barkely thing but with a Common twist to it. not the sort of thing you expect Com on but it works.
4. Sex4Suga: Hated this song at first, didnt like the title or the hook as I thought it was just silly but after listening to it through my earphones, I heard the beat in a different way and the beats crazy on this, just listen to the baseline. I still hate the hook though.
5. Announcements : Best track on the album and you can't find anything to hate about this one except for the fact that they aint really saying much.
6. Gladiator: His spitting on this is ill but the beat just sounds wierd and I dont think it really works, if you listen to the lyrics and how hes spitting, you so wish it was on another beat.
7. Changes: This song is good as it kind of reminds you of 'come close' from electric circus but you want to hate this one coz it sounds corny.
8. Inhale: Another song which just sounds good and not much to hate about this one.
9. What a world: This is just another fun song but you sort of think its pointless.
10. Everywhere: Not good not bad, but interesting still.

Now people say this album lacks soul and is all about girls/partying and it doesnt do anything for the hip-hop culture as common does the very thing he speaks against which is meaningless songs and selling out and I can understand that. However, I also understand that artist do evolve and they must as it gets a bit boaring to be doing the same thing all the time. but I have to say that as far as music goes, this album is fun to listen to especially when you are not listening to it with the intent and purpose of learning something "possitive" because a lot of the tracks are just fun songs to listen to and there is nothing wrong with that sometimes, you can't always be listening to that revolutionary propaganda all the time, its good to just chill sometimes.

Oh yes, I just have to say that this album is much much better than Kanye's new album because thats just annoying and sounds the same with that auto-whatever it is he uses to sing. Common does not try to sing on
this, all he does is something different, different beats and different flow/delivery and nothing deep. just easy.

Buy this album only if your mind can transcend that hip-hop-esc barrier that defines to you what hip-hop should sound like and what YOu expect common to sound like. Its a fun album, yes its not deep at all, might not even have soul but its got mad rhythms and funky sounds. I give it 3 stars only because its an album I hate to love.

What a departure. For a man who once wrote the tremendous metaphor in "I Used to Love H.E.R.", using a woman to represent hip hop, or collaborating with Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab on "New Wave" for 2002's ground-breaking Electric Circus, this record from Common will come as both a surprise and disappointment to long-time fans. Common found great form in the early noughties working with the Soulquarians and then his friend Kanye West, releasing four outstanding LPs. For Universal Mind Control, West collaborates on the inexplicably dire "Punch Drunk Love", but the producing credits this time - for the most part - go to the Neptunes, who were drafted in by Common while West was adding finishes touches to 808s & Heartbreak.

There's a stripped-back, pallid texture to a lot of these tracks, however; a trait that also plagued Pharrell William's solo project. After the percussive charge of opener "UMC", the album splits into two halves. The first half sees Common getting in touch with his sexy side; a typical Neptunes synth scores the blunt "Sex 4 Suga", as Common tells a a girl she's "being touched by the forces of nature". There's something oddly addictive to this number, but standards fall completely on "Punch Drunk Love", and the abysmal "Announcement". During the inept production of the latter, the Chicago-born rapper declares that "when it comes to hip hop it's just me and my bitch", while Pharrell boasts his "dick is like a Blow Pop, baby." These tunes, as well as the lazy rhyming on "What A World", are possibly the least inspiring things Common has written since he broke onto the scene with "Take it EZ" back in 1992.

Essentially, it's Common's party record but, thankfully, he can't help but go back into his socially conscious mode for the latter half of the album. He grandly announces his confidence and awe on the brash "Gladiator", and releases a torrent on the will to survive during the rising synths of "Inhale". Elsewhere, producer Mr DJ provides some much needed colour to a rather sterile album; on "Changes", Common vocalises the importance of one's positivity and the example it can set on different generations, over a bubbly, psychedelic arrangement; Cee-Lo Green guests on the stomping "Make My Day", and the album closes with the stunning "Everywhere", wherein a synth-funk beat backdrops a Martina Topley-Bird vocal. These songs just about save the record. Overall though, it's a mixed bag, and it's certainly worrying that Common seems to be moving towards a radio-friendly tone - both lyrically and musically - and his rhymes by and large boast his prowess; either behind the mic, in the bedroom, or on a film set. That "little boy from Chicago" seems a long way away from the days of Like Water for Chocolate.

PICK OF THE ALBUM: Everywhere ; Changes ; Inhale ; UMC ; Gladiator