Public Enemy - New Whirl Odor Album Review

Well, PE decided to not put out whatever it was they were doing with Paris (or at least delay it till next year) and put this out instead. I guess that's OK, but why didnt they combined the best of both?

01. …And No One Broadcasted Louder Than… (Intro)
Some dude keeps up with the black CNN metaphor. I mean, I guess.

02. New Whirl Odor
Pretty sweet, actually, even though the vocals seem to be played thorugh a tape player.

03. Bring That Beat Back
This would be good if the beat didnt sound like OKplayer ripping off Kanye West. Still good vocals. By the way, I dont know how you can make a bad Kanye West imitation - you just take a Luther Vandross song and play it really fast. And I mean that quite literally.

04. 66.6 Strikes Again (Intermisson One)
This is a tribute to the "Incident at 66.6 FM" instrumental back in the day - and they got the same radio guy and the phone calls and a new, but totally nice instrumental. Actually this beat is better than the past 2.

05. MKLVFKWR (featuring Moby)
This is pretty old, but it has great lyrics and it doesnt even sound all that techno. Actually this production is better than the fake Kanye earlier. Of course i still like the Raw Public remix better.

06. Questions
The now required attempt at heavy metal. This is actually pretty damn interesting even if some parts are just typical Fine Arts Militia or what have you (and I mean that in a bad way). Where is Anthrax when you need em?

07. Makes You Blind
A more traditonal rap song, except better. Probably produced by DJ Johnny "Juice" Rosado. The lyrics take the traditional shots at the government, news and corporations but with the usual cleverness of Chuck D - "Throw your hands in the air, Bush and Blair dont care [...] they said to the masses they considered them asses / Take a look at the world, another Son of a Bush disaster"

08. Preachin To The Quiet
This one of the better songs. Maybe it's when PE isn't trying to reinvent the wheel when they sound better now days. Back in 89 they were groundbreaking, but this is 16 years after and they still want to break new ground at every turn, and maybe if they just stuck to making much better versions of what other poeple are doing their albums would be better. Just maybe.

09. Get Down
Another instrumental, this time more reminscent of "Security of the 1st World" if it wasnt as cool. But not alot of shit is as cool as "Security of the 1st World"

10. Revolution
This beat is pretty good, the chorus is awful, and who's this dude rapping? I want to say it's like a british dude or something. Professor Griff is on this too. A little hint to him: There's a reason why youre not on PE's best 2 albums.

11. Check What You're Listening To
Yeah, fuck the radio. But again the beat is kind of weird and not in a good way.

12. As Long As The People Got Something To Say
If I attempted to recreate like, "War at 33 1/3" without any James Brown samples, this is probably what I would end up with.

13. Ya'll Don't Know
Proffessor Griff solo = skip.

14. Either You Get It By Now Or You Don't (Intermission Two)
This is another good instrumental. Maybe they should do an all-instrumental album. Actually, not they shouldnt at all. By the way, is that like a Neil Young sample somewhere in there?

15. Superman's Black In The Building
With that kind of corny attempt to be clever of a title, you would never think that this is totally awesome and intense in a way you hadnt heard before from PE. This shit is 12 minutes long - and its complete with sax solos, guitar solos, drum solos, turntable solos. Maybe a little too long though.

OVERALL: Ok, I complained throughout most of this album, but it's actually pretty good. The problem is that the memories of "Fear of a Black Planet" and "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" are there and nothing will ever be as good. The vocals are consistently good if they are kind of getting a little more repetitive than in the past but the beats are just not there. Next time, let's get Pete Rock to do the whole album. That'd be badass.

Best songs: The intermissons, "Makes You Blind" and "Superman's Black In The Building".