Beware: Mediocre Music
I won't deny enjoying Pitbull's license to print money Planet Pit, but I'm not sure I'll ever need to hear it again either. Maybe it'll serve as an amusing time capsule of this moment in pop-radio history, when obnoxious club beats and naked capitalism ruled all. From my PopMatters review:
I’ve got similar reservations with Pitbull’s popular, Eurocentric new album Planet Pit. The title Planet Pit sounds like some hellish vision of our eco-disastrous paint-soaked future, Wall-E meets the Morlocks on The Road, but it’s actually an opportunity for Sr. Armando Christian “Pitbull” Pérez to introduce his brand new slogan: “Mr. Worldwide”! He used to be “Mr. 305”, see, but now he’s got hoes in different area codes. “International Love” (first promotional single, feat. Chris Brown) mentions at least nine locales, plus “countries and cities I can’t pronounce / And places on the globe I didn’t know existed.” (Kyrgyzstan?) So in the interest of increasing his market share and his genetic footprint, Pitbull has decided to grow his brand and sink it deep into virgin territory. He positions himself for action, feels out the strategic gaps, and fills them with his acumen, forever keeping his eye on the back end. The guy’s a rainmaker.
(I should note that the string of puns at the end there totally rips off Chuck Eddy's review of Sir Mix-a-Lot for SPIN, Al Shipley's review of Chris Brown over at Singles Jukebox, and Ethan Padgett's review of Birdman/Lil'Wayne for Baltimore City Paper. Shoulders of giants and whatnot.)
Next up, a completely underwhelming Fania Records remix CD by Joe Claussell. The rhythm may be gonna get ya; the Sacred Rhythm, on the other hand, will not. Also from PopMatters:
Claussell has long been prominent in NYC’s house music scene, but he has strange notions of what the kids are listening to these days. “How many kids… now even know what Fania was?” he asks in the liner notes. “Maybe some of them might hear this and get turned on.” I dunno; at times Hammock House resembles one of those Grammy-winning Herbie Hancock tribute albums, or deep house night at Body&SOUL, or even the suede-chested tones of Chuck Mangione, but how many kids are getting turned on by that stuff? (Besides all the Destroyer fans, I mean.) Straight-up Fania albums are crisper, noisier, and way more exciting, and they have cooler album covers too.
Not that Claussell should have released a bunch of straight-up Fania songs. But that’s what I’d rather listen to, and I know plenty of kids who’d agree.(Yes, I will take ANY opportunity to make fun of Destroyer.)
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