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Macy Gray lets her freak flag fly, almost to the detriment of everything else.
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BlenderA conceptual bacchanal of sweat-drenched lust. [Oct/Nov 2001, p.104]
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With this eclectic, eccentric approach comes a lack of cohesion and quality control.
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Musically, the album bounces from a full-on urban polka ("Oblivion") to tracks with plenty of Apollo Showtime-style organs, horns and disco and funk elements that keep the wacky tales from sounding wack.
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The tracks are brassy and effusive, swelling with horns, organs, and tasteful orchestration. At their best, they deflect attention from Gray's often irksome voice, which veers toward novelty more than a soul singer's should.
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MojoThe Id simply turns up the levels on what made her debut so big, in the process overshadowing the background detail that made that album so special. [Oct 2001, p.128]
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But while Gray's voice is still beguiling and unique, The Id is basically Brit-award winning, corporate soul with little identity, too cosy and calculated to have any genuine depth.
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The music itself doesn't quite have the simple accessibility and easy soul of her debut, but it's loads of fun and bursting with ideas.
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It is only when she tries something a little different that Macy comes unstuck.
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Gray's pipes aren't for everyone, but if you can't stomach them, I feel for you. You're missing some of the best soul on the planet.
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Even though one can hear echoes of everything from "The Threepenny Opera" to Bitches Brew here, the funk is in her DNA.
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SpinThe Id, like On How Life Is before it, never seems too polished because Gray adamantly pursues her complicated pleasures, belying her image as a stoned soul picnic... [Oct 2001, p.123]
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A platter of hot-buttered R&B popcorn, liberally sprinkled with salty social critique, "The Id" finds Gray getting disco-freaky while instigating her "Sexual Revolution," and playfully rapping about her kids with Slick Rick on the funky burner "Hey Young World II."
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Amazingly, the disc still feels cohesive in spite of its unpredictability, aided by can't-miss crowd-pleasers like the irrepressible disco-pop blowout "Sexual Revolution."
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The Id suffers from the conundrum of all post-breakout second albums. You're disappointed either because the songs are not enough like the first one or because they're too much like the first but not quite as good.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 16
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Mixed: 1 out of 16
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Negative: 5 out of 16
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tomaOct 18, 2006
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JoseAntonioAOct 8, 2002Clear & deep songs of life looking for a soul.