'Masquerade' no 'Carnival' but Wyclef's latest still good

Wyclef
Masquerade
Columbia It's pretty much a guarantee that whatever Wyclef Jean releases, it'll be better than 90 percent of the hip-hop out there today. Unlike the vast majority of dime-a-dozen rappers infesting the modern hip-hop scene, Wyclef's music is thoughtful, insightful and introspective; the former Fugee knows how to pinpoint a certain emotion, a certain memory, a certain thought and turn it into a universal message of faith and spiritual renewal. Masquerade, his latest release, is no different. Having said that, Masquerade is not as good as his 1997 masterpiece, The Carnival. But it is better than his disjointed 2000 effort, Ecleftic, which itself certainly was not bad. Masquerade contains several brilliant examples of emotional sincerity and intellectual soul-searching. "Daddy" is a plaintive farewell to his father, while "PJ's," featuring Governor and Prolific, is a sobering look at ghetto life. Likewise, "Peace God" and "War No More" are heartfelt pleas for compassion and understanding, and Wyclef's cover of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" is stirring, if a bit syrupy. Masquerade stumbles when it covers other, less worthy standards. King of schmaltz Tom Jones guests on "Pussycat," a feeble update of an even more feeble original by -- shudder! -- Burt Bacharach. And "Oh What a Night" is a play on "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)," another equally rancid song that was better left alone. But Wyclef has always been a sucker for such examples of pop trash. On Carnival he covered the Bee Gees, and on Ecleftic he featured a guest appearance by Kenny Rogers, who almost single-handedly killed country music 20 years ago. But we can forgive Wyclef for such foibles, mainly because the rest of his albums always lift his work above the lousy covers and above the bile that is the vast majority of modern hip-hop.