- RJD2 had two songs on Deadringer, his 2002 debut, that I had on replay for pretty much a year after I first heard them. Those tracks, "Ghostwriter" and "June" wrung poignancy out of a combination of fragmented gospel vocals and cannily paired instrumentation. But unlike Moby's Play, the standouts on Deadringer were polychromatic, heavily rhythmic—an explosion of tones and texture.
Burial used this vocal technique far more ingeniously than RJD2, thereby all but rendering him irrelevant. But where was RJD2 in the five years before Untrue? A: Watering down his sound into background music for MTV reality shows; making "pop experiments" much, much less adventurous than the craftiest songs on his debut; and composing the theme song for Mad Men, which might help explain why this album sounds like a collection of advertising jingles.
Not only is the egregiously titled The Colossus one-dimensional, it's almost totally unemotional. It's hard to imagine these songs galvanizing, affecting or invigorating anyone. The harpsichord on "Giant Squid" is there for texture, maybe. But the beat is the same boom-bap 4/4 drum pattern that Danger Mouse already used up seven years ago. While the title "The Glow" suggests the same otherworldliness of RJD2's standout tracks, it's actually more like stale Jamiroquai. (At least they had the glow of the "Virtual Insanity" video.)
Maybe this rudimentary instrumental hip-hop appeals to someone, but I have a hard time trying to imagine who that is. This isn't aggressive enough to work out to, too rhythmic to work to and too bland to work as anything but faint music behind a car commercial. Hopefully enough outcries from his once-effusive fanbase will make RJD2 go back to making powerful music. But when I hear an album like this, I incline towards endorsing illegally downloading music off the Internet. Why the hell should anyone waste good money on an artist who sounds like he doesn't care about his own art?
Tracklist 01. Let There Be Horns
02. Games You Can Win feat. Kenna
03. Giant Squid
04. Salud 2
05. The Glow
06. A Spaceship for Now
07. The Shining Path feat. Phonte Coleman
08. Crumbs off the Table feat. Aaron Livingston
09. A Son's Cycle feat. The Catalyst, Illogic & NP
10. Tin Flower feat. Heather Fortune
11. Small Plans
12. Gypsy Caravan
13. The Stranger
14. Walk with Me