This edition of the CD Odyssey is the fifth straight "good but not great" album. It is also a guilty pleasure.
If you happened to think you spotted me driving home with this album playing a little too loud today all I can say is...it wasn't me.
Disc 119 is...Hot Shot
Artist: Shaggy
Year of Release: 2000
How I Came To Know It: I don't remember any more. I've had this album since soon after it came out. I think I just liked the singles - and so I bought it. A rare decision to buy something based on radio play, rather than a recommendation.
How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Shaggy album. Hence, comparisons would be a bit tricky.
Rating: 3 stars.
This album begs the question, "What ever happened to Shaggy?" For two or three years there in the late nineties and early oughts, he was a big deal. Previous to "Hot Shot" he had been made famous by the single "Oh Carolina", which I believe came out while he was still serving as a soldier in the US Army. Something about a regular GI Joe fulfilling his dreams sits right with me.
"Hotshot" propelled him to superstardom. Yet, it was not to last. Like so much pop music, it is fun for a while, but quickly fades. Like a trip to the amusement park when you're ten.
. As I mentioned above, this record is a guilty pleasure for me. I actually pull this one out a fair bit when I need something peppy, and it never disappoints. It is a blend of a sort of rap hip-hop vibe, with a more straightforward pop sensibility that makes it easy for the masses to digest.
Shaggy's voice is also a sort of blend of pop stylings, reggae and that Indian dance music I can never remember the name of. He also isn't afraid to bring on other very talented singers to lay down catchy choruses. It is painfully commercial, but it does what it does very well.
The big hit on this album is "It Wasn't Me" which features the world's second dumbest man, complaining that his girlfriend caught him cheating. Of course he had given her an extra key to his place AND he was cheating with his next door neighbour.
This man then receives advice from the world's dumbest man: "Say it wasn't you."
Uh...dude - the girl caught him "buck naked bangin' on the bathroom floor". On camera. Dumb man's reply, "Say it wasn't you." Anyway - while these two characters are dumb as a bag of hammers, the song is pretty funny. It also has a catchy beat.
This album came at a good time for me as well. I've had a hard week, with bad news on a number of fronts. I've been trying hard not to let all this bad news get me down. "Hotshot" had a couple songs in a row ("Hope" and "Keep'n It Real") that are all about hangin' in there. Good songs, with positive messaging, and timely. Thanks, Shaggy.
One thing that does irk me about this album is the beginning of the trend in music to not just sample a few notes from another song, but to wholesale borrow a few bars from another song, or a whole chorus.
Shaggy does so to good effect in "Angel" which borrows the tune from Juice Newton's "Just Call Me Angel", and with lesser results in "Dance & Shout" where he borrows from a Michael Jackson song the name of which escapes me.
It isn't that he does this borrowing poorly. It is more that this has become a bit of an epidemic in urban music ever since. If Shaggy didn't start it, he certainly encouraged it with big hits based largely on other people's songs.
For all that, it is a good record, and some of the more engaging pop I've heard in the last ten years. Then again, I also get guilty pleasure from Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster" (It is OK, Sheila bought it - I just live here).
Best tracks: Angel, Hope, Keep'n It Real, Freaky Girl, It Wasn't Me
If you happened to think you spotted me driving home with this album playing a little too loud today all I can say is...it wasn't me.
Disc 119 is...Hot Shot
Artist: ShaggyYear of Release: 2000
How I Came To Know It: I don't remember any more. I've had this album since soon after it came out. I think I just liked the singles - and so I bought it. A rare decision to buy something based on radio play, rather than a recommendation.
How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Shaggy album. Hence, comparisons would be a bit tricky.
Rating: 3 stars.
This album begs the question, "What ever happened to Shaggy?" For two or three years there in the late nineties and early oughts, he was a big deal. Previous to "Hot Shot" he had been made famous by the single "Oh Carolina", which I believe came out while he was still serving as a soldier in the US Army. Something about a regular GI Joe fulfilling his dreams sits right with me.
"Hotshot" propelled him to superstardom. Yet, it was not to last. Like so much pop music, it is fun for a while, but quickly fades. Like a trip to the amusement park when you're ten.
. As I mentioned above, this record is a guilty pleasure for me. I actually pull this one out a fair bit when I need something peppy, and it never disappoints. It is a blend of a sort of rap hip-hop vibe, with a more straightforward pop sensibility that makes it easy for the masses to digest.
Shaggy's voice is also a sort of blend of pop stylings, reggae and that Indian dance music I can never remember the name of. He also isn't afraid to bring on other very talented singers to lay down catchy choruses. It is painfully commercial, but it does what it does very well.
The big hit on this album is "It Wasn't Me" which features the world's second dumbest man, complaining that his girlfriend caught him cheating. Of course he had given her an extra key to his place AND he was cheating with his next door neighbour.
This man then receives advice from the world's dumbest man: "Say it wasn't you."
Uh...dude - the girl caught him "buck naked bangin' on the bathroom floor". On camera. Dumb man's reply, "Say it wasn't you." Anyway - while these two characters are dumb as a bag of hammers, the song is pretty funny. It also has a catchy beat.
This album came at a good time for me as well. I've had a hard week, with bad news on a number of fronts. I've been trying hard not to let all this bad news get me down. "Hotshot" had a couple songs in a row ("Hope" and "Keep'n It Real") that are all about hangin' in there. Good songs, with positive messaging, and timely. Thanks, Shaggy.
One thing that does irk me about this album is the beginning of the trend in music to not just sample a few notes from another song, but to wholesale borrow a few bars from another song, or a whole chorus.
Shaggy does so to good effect in "Angel" which borrows the tune from Juice Newton's "Just Call Me Angel", and with lesser results in "Dance & Shout" where he borrows from a Michael Jackson song the name of which escapes me.
It isn't that he does this borrowing poorly. It is more that this has become a bit of an epidemic in urban music ever since. If Shaggy didn't start it, he certainly encouraged it with big hits based largely on other people's songs.
For all that, it is a good record, and some of the more engaging pop I've heard in the last ten years. Then again, I also get guilty pleasure from Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster" (It is OK, Sheila bought it - I just live here).
Best tracks: Angel, Hope, Keep'n It Real, Freaky Girl, It Wasn't Me
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