The CanCon Catalogue

Tuesday Revue: In which I write about the new releases that might actually be worth checking out.


The Tuesday Revue: Remember back before the internet? Back when if you wanted to hear a new album you actually had to wait for it to be released, and then go, physically GO, buy it? Those days sucked, right? But there was also something to the experience of carefully considering which works were worth your time and cash, and then experiencing them as a whole. The Tuesday Revue tries to present, for your consideration, albums that might actually be worth more investment than the time it takes to find a torrent. This week: Gentleman Reg and K'naan.

II. K'naan- Troubadour

Like Gentleman Reg, this is that rare indie Canadian release that comes with a lot of pre-release buzz, although this time I think it's a little more mainstream. As the X3 Artist of the Month K'naan has been getting love from CBC Radio 3, aux.tv, and Exclaim! magazine, but perhaps more notably (in terms of the level of exposure he's experiencing) he's been everywhere from CNN to Jimmy Kimmel over the last month. Say what you will, he's out there working.

Musically, Troubadour starts out promisingly enough with TIA (standing for This Is Africa), with a beat that could almost be an M.I.A. throwaway. For anyone who listened to The Dusty Foot Philosopher, we are immediately given a familiar theme: Africa is way, way, way worse than anything most North American rappers are familiar with. From the first verse:

"I take rappers on a field trip any day.../I know where all the looters and shooters stay/Welcome to the city we all call doomsday."

The problem I had, and continue to have, with this type of track is that while it ostensibly trying to put self-styled North American gangsters in their position, it's being done in the same way that they put each other in their position: by bragging about how much toughter their hood is than anyone else's. Granted, it's undoubtedly true that K'naan's seen harder times, but it's still the same game of one-ups-manship that he's supposed to be against.

Fortunately, these tracks never get out of control, and he's far more reflexive elsewhere, remembering the time he was nearly killed by a grenade, or the choice his mother had to make in leaving behind K'naan's cousins in order to get her son our of war-torn Somalia. "Fatima" is perhaps the best of these reflections, finding K'naan lamenting about the girl he left behind when he came to North America, crying, "Damn you country, so good at killing/ Damn you feeling for perserving." He's a gifted lyricist, no doubt, whether talking about life for a soldier in Iraq, praising his mother, or describing the "fifteen minutes" it takes for a money transfer to be processed so he can eat again.

In fact, K'naan is that rarest of breeds: a rapper whose lyrics are better than his beats. And while he attributes this to the need to send money home rather than buy Kanye tracks, it is a setback. With some notable exceptions like "TIA," first single "ABC's" and the inverted blues Mos Def collaboration "America," too often the music veers into the overproduced dance/pop/hip-hop sound that you may be familiar with if you've spent any time listening to local "world" music. Actually, when I think of it, K'naan is also strange in that he's a rapper who's better live than recorded, since he performs with a backing band, which make for a more organic sound than most of what you find here.

That said, this is still definitely worth getting. There's enough good ideas and K'naan is engaging enough that it overcomes the shortcomings, even when it's Adam Levine of Maroon 5 being completely unnecessary in the otherwise fantastic stutter-funk of "Bang Bang" or Kirk Hammett getting in the way on a redux version of "If Rap Gets Jealous." At one point K'naan brags "I made the list this year, I'm honour roll." If that's true, then let's hope his next album sees him ditching the big-name vocal collaborations from other genres (Damian Marley, and Mos Def, and Chubb Rock, who actually have personal relationships with K'naan and sound natural here, excluded) and spending the saved cash on some big-name beats. But then again, given how good his stripped-down live performances on Q were (listen here), maybe he should just pocket it and skip the money transfers.

You can listen to Troubadour on K'naan's MySpace (but you should probably read this first), and you can buy it here.

"TIA"