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Lovage | MUSIC TO MAKE LOVE TO YOUR OLD LADY BY

Dan the Automator comes again.
CD, 75 Ark

Tekst: Scott Finnell

Publicatiedatum: 21 januari 2002

This latest offering from the guys who revolutionized hip-hop with 2000's Deltron 3030 and last year's Gorillaz experiment is a campy aural aphrodisiac. Like Deltron and Gorillaz, this album is high-concept, a soundtrack to a movie never made. Unfortunately, it's one of those straight-to-video soft porn films with bad actors and worse plot development. Readers familiar with Dan The Automator's work will instantly recognize the alter-egos, samples, and humorous interludes that populate the album as signature flourishes. He also stays on familiar ground musically, sticking to the formula of hip hop beats topped off with strings, guitars, and harmonic vocals. Sadly, after two years the old moves seem tired, and with ex-Elysian Fields singer Jennifer Charles teaming up with former Faith No More frontman Mike Patton for some breathy orgasms and ridiculous rhymes ('You and me are a disease/and the germs are spreading/use me like Listerine/keeping your breath fresher'), it's impossible to take this album seriously. In the Sixties, or even in the Eighties, this kind of frank celebration of sex might have been worth it for the shock value alone. But in an age when porn is freely available to any teen with an Internet connection, when porn stars are ubiquitous and Penthouse owner Larry Flynt is celebrated with a feature film, this stuff is pretty run-of-the-mill. I kept expecting an album this cheeky to have a point, some kind of artistic subtext to explain it, but other than a few bright spots, there wasn't anything to speak of. 'Sex (I'm A)' is the high point, as Charles and Patton embody the gender identities and power differential that have historically existed between the sexes. I've always thought that Jennifer Charles possessed the sexiest voice in music, a voice worth paying by the minute to hear, and now I won't have to. And it's good to hear that Mike Patton, that rap- metal pioneer, isn't passed out in a gutter somewhere with a needle stuck in his arm. But unless you are a serious fan of The Automator's various collaborations, this album probably isn't worth the price of admission. Of course, Lovage has a built-in defense: I wasn't having sex when I listened to it.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/lovage/music-to-make-love-to-your-old-lady-by/1214/
Meer Lovage op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/lovage