Timbaland Presents: Shock Value
Album came through my door today, TIS AMAZING. Admittedly, I'm quite the Timbaland stan, but this does indeed bring the shock as intended, and not in any bad way.
The album seems to present some comfortable commercial friendly tunes that could be thrown onto the radio or just blasted outright in clubs where people would just thrash to the deep basslines... like Bounce which features the legendary Dr. Dre on the same track as Missy Elliot and Justin Timberlake. It's suprisingly raw but it gets the job done. But the album ranges to different corners of popular music, such as with the emo rockers on "One and Only" with the Fallout Boys, along with other suprisingly good collaborations with other rockers like She Want's Revenge, an epic rock ballad with One Republic, a fast and thrashful track with The Hives, and a instrument-fest with Sir Elton John where they simply jam out with programmed drum patterns, backing vocals, synthesizers along with the legendary improvisation of the piano by Elton.
There's also the arsenal of his music production influences and new techniques such as his sharp 80's synths and arpeggiated lines combined with world music such as his work on the Asian-inspired track "Bombay". It's definately a first to hear such a combination, but I'm glad it works because it doesn't sound like something that can be pulled off just by text alone. Something that warrants blowing the dust off the old synthesizers is "Miscommunication" which features gentle beatboxing percussions in the background and a chorus as catchy as the cold (although we all know software based synths and samplers is where it's at these days). In fact, one of the best tracks on the album features his discovered roster D.O.E. and Keri Hilson which gives you a subtle reminder of his huge produced techno-inspired hit SexyBack with another set of abrupt electro-lines and this time he seems to have stolen the chorus from the 80's with a time machine, and he knew which one to take because it's a beautiful piece.
There are 19 tracks on the UK album, which by todays Hip-Hop/Urban tracklistings is a large amount. So Timbaland manages to cram in a load of collaborations to make this a hugely diverse album... if anything, this is a portfolio for Timbalands musical compatibility with artists and music genres. There's the Resident Evil sampled choir on the track "Kill Yourself" with an 808-style beat all Timbaland-ified, so it almost grabs your head by the hands and forces your head to bob deeply like a hammer, with dark utters and rap laid all over it like butter. It sounds like return stab at Storch, and if this is the case the only reply possible is a white flag.
We even have one more track than our US buddies as we have a Timbaland produced M.I.A. track, which is definately steered into her direction of Sri Lankan rhythmic percussions and tambourine slashes combined with her mesmerising voice stuck in an element between talking and singing throughout and features one of the best beatswitches I've heard from Timbaland in a while, with possibly the best synth module I've ever listened to.
:bowdown: Thanks Timbo! lol, Now I've got something to keep me company to and from my University interview tomorrow >: D
