Circus not Common's best

There is little doubt that Common is one of the most respected artists in hip hop today. He's so highly regarded that a slew of high-profile stars lined up to appear on his latest CD, Electric Circus. The list of guests is indeed impressive: Bilal, Prince, Jill Scott, ?uestlove, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, Cee-Lo and Pharrell Williams, along with one or more members of P.O.D., Stereolab and Zap Mama. Unfortunately, it is often this rich diversity of talent that props up an album that, for the most part, is a disappointment, especially compared to its masterful predecessor, 2000's Like Water for Chocolate.\nElectric Circus is one of several heavily anticipated hip-hop albums to come out in the last months of 2002. Recent releases include the Roots' Phrenology and Talib Kweli's Quality. That is both good and bad for Common. On the positive side, the recent flood of progressive, adventurous hip hop is reassuring proof that the genre is still developing and evolving, and that Common remains in the pantheon of forward-looking hip-hop artists. Even Common himself acknowledges the importance of moving on to new things; on "I Am Music," he raps: "Hip hop is changing / Y'all want me to stay the same?" \nHowever, it also means that Electric Circus has been and will be judged in comparison to, say, the Roots' new album, which is a much better effort than Common's. Both albums mine similar artistic territory - atmospheric soundscapes that would make Brian Eno proud. While small doses of such ambience can be creative and refreshing, it often obscures the underlying beats. The result, especially on Electric Circus, is drifting, sometimes unfocused music that fails to consistently hold the listener's attention.\nFor example, the album's last two cuts, "Jimi Was a Rock Star" and "Heaven Somewhere," would be alluring and seductive - if they both weren't more than eight minutes long (did somebody say Yes?). On "Jimi," the talents of Erykah Badu are drowned out by the messy cloud of sound that pervades the track, while "Heaven" starts out as a beautifully swirling bit of magic but eventually just drifts into an inconclusive nothingness. This is not stuff you'd find on Top-40 radio.\nThat's not to say that the album lacks standout tracks. Perhaps the strongest cut "Come Close," an affecting, pretty ballad featuring vocals by Blige, who helps to bring out Common's introspective side. He raps, "You help me to discover me / I just want you to put trust in me."\nThere are also a fair amount of surprises along the way. "I Am Music," for example, features a horn section that, thanks to the inventive presence of Greg Tardy's cornet, evokes images of 1920s-era Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five. Combined with Jill Scott's inspiring vocals this is one of the strongest tracks on the CD.\nBut overall there are not enough surprises to prevent the album from getting, well, boring, and if there's one thing hip hop should never be, it's boring. It's too bad that an artist of Common's skill, talent and vision should release an album that just falls as flat as Electric Circus. If this is what the best has to offer, what hope should we have for everyone else?