July 29, 2003

Diverse Organizing Principles

ow do you make an album? Most albums are organized by vocalist: they are collections of songs sung (and sometimes, but not always, played) by a single person, or group. It's a sensible arrangement, but also an arbitrary one. Three new compilations suggest three different ways to organize an album.

`Bad Boys II' Soundtrack
Various Artists

This is P. Diddy's new album, whatever that means. He raps on three of the songs, takes a co-producer's credit on five and talks on a few more; he's also listed as one of the CD's executive producers. He's a mogul, not a musician: he doesn't make songs, he makes choices. And much of the time he makes good ones. "Bad Boys II" (Bad Boy/Universal) is one of the year's most pleasurable hip-hop albums, driven by the same combination of hip-hop swagger and nightclub flamboyance that has made P. Diddy a star.

P. Diddy just about guaranteed the disc's success by signing up the biggest names he could find. (You might say he's the George Steinbrenner of hip-hop, except that P. Diddy insists on playing, too.) It's a brute-force approach to hit making, but it works. On "Show Me Your Soul" the Neptunes helped make the beat, Pharrell Williams (from the Neptunes) shouts the hook, and Lenny Kravitz croons part of the chorus; the result is an effective (if straightforward) dance track, with a clattering backbeat and lots of boasting. "Shake Ya Tailfeather," the soundtrack's first hit, starts with Nelly moaning a charming pickup line: "Hey, girl, what your name is?/Where you from? Turn around, who you came with?"

P. Diddy has always had a knack for combining hip-hop with R&B, and this disc includes uptempo contributions (can we call them fast jams?) from Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige and Justin Timberlake, who lays multitracked vocals atop a hiccupping beat on "Love Don't Love Me."

P. Diddy cheats a bit by adding a few previously released songs, including Jay-Z's playful hit "La-La-La." And while his new protégé Loon sounds great, the band he put together — known, unfortunately, as Da Band — contributes an uneven posse cut called, "Why."

All pop stars are brand names, but P. Diddy exists almost exclusively as a brand name. It may be hard to figure out what he does, but CD's associated with him are invariably worth listening to and are often very good. Maybe that seems like the least we can ask of him, but isn't it really the most?

`Masked and Anonymous' Soundtrack
Various Artists

If the Bad Boys II soundtrack is organized around a towering personality, this one is organized around a towering songwriter: it brings together cover versions of songs by Bob Dylan (who also stars in the film), alongside four new recordings from him.

Need it be said that "Masked and Anonymous" (Colmbia/Sony Music Soundtrax) is an uneven, occasionally frustrating disc? Need it be said that Dylan fans will have to buy it anyway?

The new Dylan recordings include a fast, desiccated version of "Cold Irons Bound" (which appeared in a much murkier form on "Time Out of Mind"), an inscrutable, deadpan jaunt through "Dixie" and a heavy, raucous new version of "Down in the Flood," from "The Basement Tapes."

The cover versions are even more adventurous. When the Magokoro Brothers sing "My Back Pages" in Japanese, or when Francesco de Gregori sings "If You See Her, Say Hello" in Italian, listeners who don't speak the language may find themselves doubting their ears. Can you detect an echo of the original lyrics in the vocal line and the chord progression? Or is that just wishful thinking?

Oddly enough, the high point and the low point come from the same culprit. The Grateful Dead contribute a long, nearly unlistenable version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." But then the band's leader, Jerry Garcia, redeems himself with a gentle, graceful reading of "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)," which may help some Dylan fans rediscover the 1978 album "Street Legal."

`Schaffelfieber 2'
Various Artists

Here's a disc organized around a rhythmic pattern, not a person. This excellent compilation of minimalist electronic dance tracks, from the great German label Kompakt, is the second installment in a series devoted to the shuffle beat — a quick triplet, which accents on the first and the third.

The effect of this pattern depends on who's using it. "Bodyrock," by Wighnomy Bros. and Robag Wruhme, emphasizes the irregularity of the shuffle beat; the producers create a heavy, off-kilter track that seems to be limping. The shuffle-beat pioneer Wolfgang Voigt, who appears here under the name Wassermann, makes the pattern sound playful: his track starts sleekly, then turns raucous with a buzzy keyboard line. And Mikkel Metal ends the album with "Hemper," a fuzzy, sleepy composition that limps off to bed.