TIMBALAND | TIMBALAND PRESENTS SHOCK VALUE (MOSLEY MUSIC GROUP/INTERSCOPE)
Their new albums could hardly be more different sonically, but El-P’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (released last month on his Definitive Jux label) and Timbaland’s Timbaland Presents Shock Value (released Tuesday by his Mosley Music Group, a subsidiary of Interscope) are both perfect examples of the producer record–a tradition that’s birthed classics like Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and duds like Pharrell’s In My Mind. Producer records are complicated, self-aggrandizing affairs meant to highlight not only their creators’ skills on the mike and behind the boards but their musical range and talent at coordinating a busload of guests–a requisite feature of the form.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
So what are these two multitasking geniuses trying to say about themselves? If you ignore Timbaland’s lyrics–a good idea in general–and focus on his choice of collaborators, a few main talking points emerge. First, he is totally buds with Justin Timberlake. He is way down with rock bands: the Hives, Fall Out Boy, She Wants Revenge. And he sees a lot more in the R & B stylings of up-and-coming hook singer Keri Hilson than the average listener probably will–her boatload of generic cameos on Shock Value might best be described as a commercial tie-in with her own album, In a Perfect World, forthcoming on Timbo’s label.
Rather than extend his mastery to new genres, El-P is digging deeper into the one he practically invented. “Tasmanian Pain Coaster,” the lead track on I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, opens with unsettling sampled dialogue from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and ramps up into six minutes of noisy, claustrophobic boom-bap that are just as twisted as El-P’s rapping–his straining voice and the long stretches where he repeats the same rhyming sound, almost like a tic, lend more than a little psych-ward vibe to the proceedings.
