Common – Be 2LP Online now

Electric Circus cost and won Common some fans. It was very exploratory, especially so for a rap album released in 2002, containing developments – some of which soared, some of which sank – that few longtime followers could have foreseen. Listeners either felt Common was picking up fresh, new inspirations, or that he was just being distracted by a whole lot of ill-fitting nonsense. With Be, it seems the MC has realized that not every album that s sprawling and eclectic is as good as Electric Ladyland or Songs in the Key of Life. More notably, he might ve been struck with the fact that a high percentage of excellent albums are around 40 minutes in length and are built on a unified sound. Be is highly concentrated, containing 11 songs and involving two producers and a small number of guests. It s a 180 degree turn from Electric Circus, and in a bizarre way it s both a progression and a back-to-basics move. Kanye West and Dilla are key to the album s steadiness, rooting the sound in 70s soul and soul-jazz. That s no shakeup, but the two producers deserve some form of award for stringing together a consistent sequence of productions that is never monotonous, dull, or all that flashy. Even lead single The Corner, heard well before Be s release, falls into the fabric of the album on first listen, as if that were where it belonged all along. Lyrically, Common comes back down to Earth – the narratives are sharp as ever, the gripes are more like observations than screeds, and the eccentricities need to be teased out rather than swatted away. Be isn t likely to be referred to by anyone as groundbreaking, but it s one of Common s best, and it s also one of the most tightly constructed albums of any form within recent memory.