with its star power and star power alone, the spirit of apollo will appeal to your curiosity and your ears— just don’t look for a cohesive concept along the way. having never heard of N.A.S.A. before, i thought i’d give them a shot, because when i briefly looked at the track listing, i saw names like method man, david byrne and M.I.A, and wanted to know how they ended up coming together on one record. it seems that curiosity is what this project is banking on, because it’s exactly that kind of rubbernecking that sustains the listener’s interest from beginning to end. only when one begins to dig for the actual content, or for the intent of this record, do they come up shorthanded. N.A.S.A. (meaning north america/south america) is purportedly a collaborative effort between 30+ artists that centres around the crate-mining, old school samples of DJs Squeak E. Clean (producer of yeah yeah yeahs’ show your bones) and Zegon, but despite having good intentions, apollo is not the “border crossing” extravaganza it claims to be. the majority of the artists are north american, and thematically, the songs don’t really follow anything concrete that would suggest a coming together of peoples or an elimination of barriers. a disclaimer at the beginning of the disc lays out the themes that will be explored, but rather than being informative, it actually comes off as an acknowledgement that this record is conceptually short-sighted and inconsistent: while david byrne sings on a song about money being the root of all evil, kanye west (!) raps on another song about the colour of his jacket (which, outside the context of the album, is still a great song). if you want to hear david byrne and chuck d. performing on the same song, or if you want to hear tom waits say “ghetto booty” rather salaciously, check this album out; however, if you’re looking for a hipper, younger version of big blue ball, you’re going to have to wait a little while longer.
Filed under: Album Review , 2009, N.A.S.A., show your bones, squeak e. clean, the spirit of apollo, yeah yeah yeahs, zegon
