Notes On Shadow

I am happy to announce that, despite my initial speculation, the new DJ Shadow album The Outsider is pretty sweet. Opener and leaked track "This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)" is hands-down the best song on here, and while the first half of the album is exactly the kind of glossy, mainstream-sounding rap Shadow's been avoiding on his past albums, they are still pretty solid tracks. Everything comes to a head on the seven-minute "Backstage Girl," with raps provided by Phonte Coleman, has Shadow pulling all the stops out of his vinyl collection to deliver a solid production, while Coleman delivers some hilarious lines about a hookup gone wrong (best line on the album: "I gotta stop fuckin' wit these ho's offa MySpace, dawg.") I could've done without the proliferation of tracks that start out with shout-outs like "DJ Shadow on this bitch!!" or "DJ Shadow up on this mothafucka!" Um...yeah, I know who the DJ is on this album. You don't need to remind me.

I see that iTunes and Amazon.com customers have already given The Outsider an average rating of 2 stars, which leads me to believe they didn't know anything about this album before they bought it. Listen to a couple of the hip-hop tracks like "Enuff" and "3 Freaks" first, then read the All Music Guide review that explains what Shadow's trying to accomplish, then decide if you still want to buy it.