All the music news that fits the print

Maybe - since we're not working in print - this title is archaic. But I've always loved it, the precocious dig at the Times. Oh well, time to find something else.

Deepspace 5. Unique, Just Like Everybody Else. Man, I really want to love this album. It's good. Really good. Some of the lines are just nasty.

I'm a poor man's poor man.

I wanna touch the fans like Ron Artest.

And this one, rightly justifying their methods and message to believers who don't bother with the mystery and story of God:

It's a gift to spit slanging / talking jive fables when the Lion slays the Witch / in the Wardrobe of Clive Staples / Sweep out the stable / for the Horse and His Boy / 'cause most are unprepared to be Surprised by Joy / I speak in brief words / this Grief Observed... / Deepspace 5 / spitting for all people who don't want to be spoon-fed their meal / You call it keeping it real / yo, tellin' a plain story / while we're breaking our backs to / bear the full Weight of Glory / we see The Problem of Pain / it's chiefly on prayer / my Letters to Malcolm / they all vanish in thin air / famish ... for lack of knowledge / we mistake Godly wisdom / for going to state college / Pay petty homage to speaking his name clear / even Christ veiled his words in a mystery that few could hear.

It's got an old school Rick Rubin flavor to a lot of it, like without the cheesy guitars. And it's helmed by my second favorite rap group, the fine folks of Mars Ill, manCHILD and DJ Dust.

DS5 is one of the best supergroups around. Almost up to the pantheon of Cross Movement, Jurassic 5 and LA Symphony. But not quite there. And maybe it's the consistent rock-influenced beats, which would sit better in Mars Ill's tracks. But in a cumulative effort, especially with so much voice in it, I'd like to hear more voices. And I know they got the skills to pay 'em out, just based on their last joint, The Night We Called It a Day (yeah, they like them ironic titles). But then again, when I recorded it on to my comp, I only took about half the songs. But what songs they are! Now I lost my original cd. So, all I have are those songs. But Unique is long, longer than this post. There's some great, great songs, including track #11 (I'll fill in the names later, when I got 'em with me.) about surviving sorrow and mortality. But, like so much hip hop, too much too much.

But buy it. What else you gonna get? At least get the T. I did.

Edit out the songs you don't care for& you got a near masterpiece. But keep a full copy, just in case.

On the flip, if you wanna see how a true artist gives interviews, Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine is putting up free clinics. As with most of the press for their latest, Drunkard's Prayer, Linford delves into the marital issues, partly to salvage and restore, partly to take us on a guided and hopeful tour. Listen and you will not be disappointed. Read and you just may smile.