Finding Forever

Alternative to everything artificial and commercial

It’s not a secret that the ostentatious pathos is one of the basic features of rap music. Of course, it wasn’t always like this but since evolution has already turned voice of the streets into the commonplace impudence there is nothing you can do about it. At the end of the day, if rappers like it then why not? The problem is that at tomes it takes too exaggerated shapes, which have nothing valuable behind. It is quite understandable that this is business, which demands corresponding behavior from an artists but why drive things to absurdity. Therefore truthful words and attempts to be simply himself look really advantageous against dominance of omnipresent gangsta-hustler images. Common is a performer of this very kind and his success is the best evidence of adequacy of his strategy. His album Be, released in 2005, was instantly elevated to the category of modern classics and both critics and Common’s peers proclaimed it to be the best alternative to everything artificial and commercial. His new album Finding Forever continues developing the same line of musical conduct and simply due to this reason is already one of the most valuable Hip Hop records of this year. Just like on his previous album Common offers a piles of interesting themes, melodies and arrangements.

Finding Forever – Common’s way to eternity

According to Common himself the title Finding Forever means to find a place in music where you can exist forever. “Music can be forever if you make it from the heart... And I look at music like Bob Marley's or Marvin Gaye's or Stevie Wonder's or A Tribe Called Quest's, that's forever music. And I’m continuing on the quest to make forever music”. In truth this short at a first glance phrase reflects the essence of the new album in many positions. The fact that Common mentioned Stevie Wonder reveals not only that he is Common’s favorite artist but it may also serve as a peculiar marker, which indicates those things that influenced Finding Forever in musical sense. In fact, there are many elements that remind you about classic soul, there is even something from jazz and lounge here. The songs sound much more tuneful than the overwhelming majority of today’s mainstream albums. However, being a Hip Hop album Finding Forever is still oriented on the corresponding audience. Just like on the previous album Common continued working with, Kanye West, who produced most of the album’s beats and also took part in recording vocals together with Common on such tracks as Start The Show and Southside. It is worth mentioning that the quality of production work exceeds all expectations. It’s not just qualitative beat, Kanye West took to account the inner essence of Common and matched the sound with the relaxed, jazzy atmosphere of the tracks. Finding Forever is one of his best works to date.

More than just Hip Hop album

Finding Forever is an amazing album indeed. The all-possible details were implemented so competently that there is noting you could cavil at. It concerns material, lyrics, sound and even the place that this album takes in Hip Hop industry. Any track, including short intro, can be mentioned as a good example. The album offers one great song after another smoothly and unobtrusively and all the tracks flow absolutely seamlessly. The songs can be divided into two parts: the softer ones, which have the arrangements in the vein of soul and lounge and more edgy tracks that offer you a progressive Hip Hop energy. Such tracks as I Want You and superb Forever Begins concern the former and The Game goes to the latter. These are very polar examples but in general many tracks successfully combine these elements and actually are hard to categorize as far as they also have some progressive traits. You may check out The People (the album’s first single) it has everything that makes this album so unique: psychedelic atmosphere, swift rapping, old-fashioned keyboards and the sampled vocal phrase that repeatedly appears in chorus brings some associations with electronic music. In a word Finding Forever is something much bigger than just good Hip Hop album. The potential audience of this record is very wide and even those who has never liked rap music as such may find here tones of really interesting moments. Finding Forever is a great album indeed, listen and enjoy!