Like Water for Chocolate

Having listened to 'Be' before, I had this one as a pending listen on my bucket list. It was probably not the greatest day for me to indulge in this album, and while overall my appreciation has been high, I cannot say that I got into it at all. Will definitely need to revisit this later on.

7/10 [REVISIT]

I have a big poster on my bedroom wall from a Common concert when I was in college. I didn't go to the concert but I have good feelings about the poster, and furthermore, I like the book with the same title as this album. Unfortunately I didn't like this very much. Wiki calls it "progressive hip hop", which is a different meaning from "progressive rock", unless I really missed something about prog. First of all, I feel like most hip hop is at least somewhat progressive (in the sense that it's political & race&class-conscious) ... though also somewhat problematic (re: violence, misogyny, homophobia)) ... so it doesn't seem a very useful label. I guess the entries on this list might be a very particular subset, though. Anyway, I found this album disappointing, because I was hoping to like it but it didn't stand out very much. Some songs were better than others, but none were really what I'd call highlights. Good album cover.

Slur count = 76.

Somehow we get two Common albums in this list? This one is as enjoyable as his acting in Silo... totally painful. Sure, the jazzy production from guys like Dilla and Questlove is technically great, but it can’t save the record. It feels super bloated and drags on for almost 80 minutes of filler that’s a total chore to get through. Common’s "conscious" vibe just comes off as preachy, and his flow really lacks the energy to keep things interesting.

To make it worse, the supposedly soulful message is undercut by some pretty gross homophobia and misogyny in the lyrics that hasn’t aged well at all. Even with the nice beats, the whole thing is a tedious, problematic slog that I was dying to finish. Definitely not a classic to me.

Think I slightly prefer this one over Be in terms of sound, with its 60's/70's soul and funk inflicted jazz (with Be being the more Kanye style chipmunk soul).

Be has just aged a little more compared to Like Water, since the whole chipmunk soul sound has kinda been relegated to the 2000's with Kanye's records. That said, while I think I like Like Water a little more due to that, I think Be is the more consistent album owing to its shorter runtime (nearly half as long), which is what's kinda hurting Like Water for me.

Honestly, if Like Water was chopped down to 50ish minutes (or hell, even 60), I think it'd be a much tighter, engaging album. Just by the end it did get a little tiring.

Either way, it does have some fantastic cuts on it, particularly The Light and The 6th Sense. The D'Angelo and Cee-Lo tracks are really good too, and great to see Questlove drumming on a couple songs.

Overall, a really good record, pretty on par with Be.

Respectable early 2000s hiphop. Not as good as Be but I can certainly give this 4 stars.

Like Water For Chocolate was definitely an album i had a good time with. Ever since hearing Be, i did know that Common was more than capable person of making good hip-hop records and this earlier work from him shows it pretty well. The production here is really well done with that nice mix of hip-hop and R&B and i should have expected it would be good since DJ Premier put his name on one of the tracks. The lyrics can range from really good to pretty bad but that is certainly a common (no pun intended) stigma among records like this. While i still like Be more, i really can't deny that this album is really good.
Best Song: The 6th Sense
Worst Song: Thelonius

2.75

Okay, okay, I admit it. A good album can indeed be too long.

Mixed bag. The rhythms and backing music are smooth.It’s the lyrics that are uneven to me.
One highlight was A Song for Assata. I learned something there and will research more. He knows how to use his talent for the greater good but didn’t always listen to his better angels on this project.

Common is only a B- rapper in terms of flow and style, he has a monotone delivery and pretty repetitive cadence, but is a good story teller and expressive writer on the conscious/intellectual side of the spectrum, though that’s all still pretty basic as far as it goes. The stars here are the producers who’ve put together an incredible set of beats, J Dilla especially, who has that warm soul/gospel forward style with a bit of vintage crackle, funky bass parts, and nostalgic feel good atmosphere. Others bring a jazzier feel or an old school boom bap + scratching style to it so there’s some variety across the (long!) album.

This is a very good album. I'd give it a 3.5 if I could, but I'll bump it to 4 stars because there just really isn't much out there like it. Common is, rightly, lumped in as a "conscious" rapper, but there's a lot more than that on this album. There's jazz, there's blues, there are collaborations, there's standard braggadocio, hard core rap. It's really a great presentation for the breadth of Common's vision and skill.

Me he aburrido, o no era el día. Pero estoy pensando que si un disco no es capaz de levantarte un mal día tampoco es un disco imprescindible. Suena bien, así que no es malo pero sin conocer su historia no me parece relevante.

The beats on this album are so chill and funky and smooth. I love it. Common's vocals complement them amazingly with conscientious lyrics. I need to listen to him more.