First off, I’d give this advance album a higher rating if every couple of minutes they didn’t include the distracting overdub: "You’re listening to Louis Logic and J.J. Brown’s ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ on Fatbeats Records." I can only guess that the overdub was included to motivate listeners to purchase the real deal (without overdub) when it drops after the official release date. Without resorting to a pun, where exactly is the logic in this?
Fatbeats Records, if you really want me to LISTEN to more than a cursory dose of this album and write more than just a blurb for readers interested in dropping a few bills on this effort, don’t send me molested advance copies! Just when I’m getting into a slick rhyme pattern or digging on a looped bass beat, out pops the overdub reminder of what I’m hearing. The whole thing is unnerving and makes me want to pitch the disc in the garbage with yesterday’s yogurt cups. Also, this kind of protective devise reeks of fear. Why would a label do such a thing unless it was afraid of the public making illegal copies? Worse yet, maybe the tracks are so forgettable that the listener has to be told again and again where they’re coming from? If this overdub was the label’s decision and the artists had no say in the matter, I honestly feel bad for Louis Logic & J.J. Brown. If the artists did know about it, they should have fought the decision tooth and nail.
Some advice for indie labels that don’t have the deep funds to create huge media buzz before a release: the first thing that hits your critics and the industry should be your best product possible, not some soiled piece of what will be available at a later date. What you are selling is the MUSIC, not the image, persona,
lifestyle, clothing line- superfluous money-makers that prop up artists between albums and during tours. In short, give me the real deal or nothing at all. Whew! My preamble went on for awhile there. I should cut back on the coffee and focus more on my yoga exercises. I’ll try to concentrate on the actual music
sans the bothersome aforementioned overdub. Louis Logic is a singular emcee. He drops some crazy lines, covering topics ranging from straight-up, goofy sexual lust to the finer points of Confucius philosophy. You’ve got to smile when Louis promises I’ll be your Captain if you’ll be my Tenielle. Even though they’re forbidden to have even a taste of alcohol, this doesn’t stop our boy’s claim (when referencing to his prowess with the ladies) that he’s got more drinks and licks than a drunken Mormon. What? If nothing else, Loius entertains us with his absurdity and constant appeal of sex, sex, sex.
J.J. Brown mixes everything from old school vocal harmonies, horn bleats and drum beats to quotes from cult films and home answering machine confessionals. He’s obviously got some serious jazz LPs in his bins and uses choice cuts to accentuate the obscure verbal flow of his partner. The pairing of Lois and J. J. is
an interesting one that allows a depth of sound to back sometimes erratic, double-edged rambling and rhymes full of energy and glimpses of good things to come. |