Macy Gray - The ID

List Price: $9.98
Our Price: $1.99
You Save: $7.99 (80%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of The ID

Music Review: Honest and Crazy
Rating: 3 Stars

There are several songs here that seem to go in a new musical direction for Gray. The first, Relating to a Psychopath, is uptempo and very colorful- like a psychedelic circus; hand-clapping, crazy voices, all with a beat reminiscent of a musical sequey on the 60's TV show Laugh In. You can almost see the go-go dancers and giant dots. Another song that steps into new territory is Sexual Revolution. It starts off slowly with strings and piano, then breaks (like a revolution?) into a swirling, disco-era dance anthem about everyone's right to express their sexuality freely. Her duet with Slick Rick, Hey Young World Part 2, has an `oompah' marching band quality, like a hip-hop polka, which works well with the subject: instructing young children on life...

get ahead and accomplish things
you'll see the wonder and the joy life brings
don't admire thieves, they don't admire you
their times are limited and hardrocks too
listen be strong and scream
woopie doo!
go for yours cause dreams come true
you'll make your mommy so proud of you too...

The last song in this new territory is the most intriguing, called Oblivion. Again with a hurdy-gurdy, polka sound, it's bizarre taken up a few notches- like a burlesque in WWII Berlin. All of this lends a strange Alice in Wonderland quality to the album. Though interesting, I prefer the more seductive R&B numbers, like Boo, Sweet Baby (with Badu), or Don't Come Around - a classic soul duet with Sunshine Anderson. Forgiveness, near the end, goes into the territory where I want to dwell with Gray:

where is the forgiveness that you promised me?
am I too late? / gone astray
misplaced the keys to all my churches
seems I've chased all my angels away...

The `hidden' track at the end, Shed, has a welcome funkiness, and cleverly compares shedding our clothes to shedding our egos- becoming completely vulnerable. On several numbers the song endings are cut short- I wish we could hear the jams to their very end. But this is still a highly enjoyable album. This unique musical artist inspires us as she expresses her creative ideas and satisfies her urges. Go ahead with your bad self, Macy. As long as you're honest, we'll be there listening.

Description of The ID

Blues CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• R&B