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Life & Arts

Variety adds value to album

Timbaland's latest puts producer in front of mic

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar

It would be an understatement to say that Timbaland has had a significant impact on hip-hop and r&b. His beats and arrangements gave artists like Aliyah, Ginuwine, Justin Timberlake and Bubba Sparxxx that extra boost needed to achieve success. 

It was only a matter of time before the man on the keyboard put his face on the cover to experience that success for himself. Thus, Timbaland Presents Shock Value was born. 

On paper, the album seemed to be perfect. And in the studio, it's a sure bet that everything sounded perfect -- but then Timbaland attempted to rap. God help us. He seriously turned what could have been one of the best albums of the year into a mediocre record with hot beats and a lot of featured artists.

The first track, "Oh Timbaland," is vintage Timbaland as far as the production goes. He uniquely utilizes a clip of a playground clap game as the track's basis, follows it up by adding piano, throws in the kick and follows that with the strumming of an acoustic guitar cleverly positioned in the background. This is the strong point of Shock Value -- Timbaland never limits himself during production by staying with the same sound, beats or instruments. Every track has a unique feel.

On the same track, however, Timbaland takes a shot at rapping. The only track that doesn't have a guest artist is hampered by Timbaland's weak verses and limited vocabulary. Throughout the album, it seems the only thing he knows how to rap about is how great of a producer he is and how everyone else is inferior.

Luckily for Timbaland, people these days don't care too much about lyrics -- just ask D4L, Lil' Scrappy or Mike Jones. 

The first three tracks are essentially dance joints that are, of course, exceptionally well-produced. "Release" and "Give it to Me" have two things in common: They both feature Justin Timberlake, and you can't help but move to the music once the songs start.

Two of the most intriguing tracks on the album are "One and Only," featuring Fall Out Boy, and "2 Man Show," featuring Elton John. This is a tale of two cities. Both had the potential to blow listeners out of the water or provide that shock value Timbaland was looking for when he chose to work with the artists, but only one proceeded in doing so.

"One and Only" is by far the most poorly produced track on Shock Value, and it could very well be the worst song Timbaland has ever made. It starts off OK, but once the song gets to the chorus it goes downhill. Patrick Stump begins to sing and Fall Out Boy rocks out, but Timbaland has his own stuff going on, too. It is poorly mixed and sounds like a bunch of cluttered noise -- extremely annoying noise. It was a nice try, but trying can only get a person so far in life.

"2 Man Show," however, was cleverly done. John never actually sings on the track, but he does play the piano. While John does his thing on the keys, a choir takes care of the harmonious chorus while Timbaland does what he does best -- or second best, really. Adding in a couple of background phrases such as "I like that" and "come on Elton," Timbaland just sits back and lets the genius that is his ear for music and producing do all the work. 

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