PHAROAHE MONCH - DESIRE - 2007 - ALBUM REVIEW

PHAROAHE MONCH – Desire – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Push/ Welcome To The Terrordome/ Let's Go/ Agent Orange
SOUNDBITE: They thought I was backpack/ Slept/ Didn’t know that he kept inside the knapsack
RATING: 3.5/5
Slower than continental drift filmed in slow-motion and then played back using the ‘frame advance’ function, Pharoahe Monch’s Desire - the follow-up to 1999’s Internal Affairs - has finally arrived. For those too young to remember, Internal Affairs was what Monch resurfaced with after the dissolution of Organized Konfusion. It was a massive underground success with a hard edge and a heavy sound - notably club banger Simon Says with it’s "Rub on your titties!" lyric and Godzilla loop which got him into all kinds of legal trouble. Since then Monch has kept a very low profile – though his other gigantic underground club smash Got You/ Fuck You was the sole decent cut on the Training Day soundtrack. The only other thing he seems to have been doing is ghost-writing songs for P-Diddy (or Diddy or whatever phallic-sounding nom-de-plume that twat’s calling himself this week) - oh yeah and creating Desire. So, with two singles already released, one a righteous slice of twenty-first century soulful hip-hop and the other a hideous chart-pleasing pile of cack - have we been graced by the second coming of a godlike genius or is Push the one highlight on an album that could’ve been made by some Cristal guzzling, ‘ice’ wearing tosspiece? Er – well a bit of both as it goes. Consequently, I thought I’d do a track by track breakdown for a change:
Intro
Sounds like 30 seconds of a cotton fields spiritual – presumably to establish a sense that oppression will be addressed.
Free
Ominous tone, laboured beat, gunshots, guitars and rhyme about oppression. Classic Monch.
Desire
Big seventies orchestral soul loops – could easily have been made by Kanye – but none the worse for that as Monch goes on about how he’s the don.
Push
Massive! Big funk horns, Monch singing an epic groove and eventually rapping too. About oppression.
Welcome To The Terrordome
Steals ‘best track’ crown from Push. A giant cover of the old Public Enemy number updated for post 9/11 times and with new music – scratching, lively old school break, and big horns. About oppression. See a pattern developing yet?
What It Is
A simple low and slow, granite-like break, bleeps and atonal noise create a claustrophobic base for Monch to cut down rivals with verbal gunfire.
When The Gun Draws
Slow clattering break, tense piano chops and Mr Porter helping Monch tell a tale from the point of view of ‘Mr Bullet’. Bleak. But beautiful. An apparent sequel to Organized Konfusion’s Stray Bullet.
Let’s Go
Penultimate decent track on the LP – shows off Monch’s polysyllabic rapping to best effect over heavy beats and what could be a guitar loop that’s been fed through lots of effects. Comes with added soul chorus.
Body Baby
Shite-awful (and presumably) tongue in cheek bollocks that vaguely resembles Will Smith’s Switch. Recently described to me as “wack as fuck” by someone who really knows.
Bar Trap
R n B-ish tedium about some bird in a bar or something.
Hold On
Erykah Badu gets roped in this time to help Monch do another grim R n B-ish rhyme.
So Good
Christ. More lame R n B ishness. I don’t mind some R n B but this is music so bland it makes me think maybe Coldplay aren’t so bad after all.
Trilogy
A ‘trilogy’ in three acts. Jesus. This is a dreary hip-hop odyssey that has the temerity to use samples out of what sounds like a jazz odyssey for fuck’s sake.
Agent Orange
If only Agent Orange could have been applied to the last five tracks - this ‘hidden’ track (that is actually very easily discovered by allowing your album to play for 30 seconds after the end of the previous track) is not a new track either, as it was released as a single in 2003. Still the synths are wicked and Monch ends on this high note spitting about government oppression.
Out now.
RELATED LINKS
Listen to Pharoahe Monch - Desire
Pharoahe Monch - Myspace
www.pharoahe-monch.com
Lyrics - Pharoahe Monch - Desire
Monkeyboxing review of Body Baby
Monkeyboxing review of Push
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