Lyrics Born - Everywhere At Once
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Do U Buy It? sounds like a goof at first, a misstep even. It reminds me of Weird Al a little bit: the nerdy cadence, the simplistic, parodic-Devo melody, the cheerleader chants, three-chord rock and new wave tempo over which Tom Shimura barks about suckers (or is he the sucker himself?). The song is the only new place the formerly ever-evolving Shimura goes on Everywhere at Once, his second real album, which admittedly kinda sucks.
Shimura epitomizes the old adage that an artist has their whole life to pen their debut album and only a year to prepare the follow-up. After debuting in the group Latyrx, with Lateef the Truth Speaker, under DJ Shadow's warped, beatmaking care with The Album in 1997, the duo concentrated on guest appearances both together and separate while Lyrics Born developed his singing-rapping style over time (most spectacularly on Blackalicious' easy-funking Do This My Way in 2000).
Over the course of six years Shimura put together his debut Lyrics Born album, Later that Day…, which finally dropped in 2003 and was, spectacularly, one of the year's best records, hip-hop or otherwise. That album signaled the arrival of distinct sound, a warm-glazed home-production style and an emphasis on patchy funkbeats, clavinet, double-smoked bass, and the oddly compelling foil of female backup singers on nearly every track (which included Shimura's better half, Joyo Velarde). By the time he issued his solo debut Shimura's skills had improved quarterfold, as he proudly showed with speed-rapped runs about Bananarama in the back of an Acura, a remembrance of telemarketing days with Blackalicious' Gift of Gab, and two sung classics, the stomping Bad Dreams and the swaying, dubby Love Me So Bad.
And then the genius got a little stuck. It took him two years to follow up Later that Day… with a remix album (Same Shit, Different Day), which was pretty good, and had some excellent guests (KRS-One!) but was still predominantly a remix album, which no one waits two years for. By the time Overnite Encore: Live! arrived to sell us the same (excellent) tunes a third time (now reworked with a rock band on stage!), the Lyrics man was starting to look a little like Hanson. What's next, a Christmas album?
So here we are, with the record Shimura smartly did not title Same Shit, Five Years Later…, because that would've made it slightly easier to tell he's stuck in his own brain. The album opener, Don't Change, is a corny rehash of his 2003 sound, without the minimally complex groove or aural presence to warrant it. Hott 2 Deff continues in this vein: slightly cheesy, repetitive dance music that gets by on the excellent rapping (with Jurassic 5's long-lost Chali 2na!) and some...
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